Thread: Tell me about Roleplaying.

I think you've got to find the voice of the character, and this voice should feel natural. You've got to understand their motivations and primarily understand what they want, what they're striving for. I used to always RP as strong, silent types that wore all black and acted extremely purposefully and enigmatically. I ended up having the most fun after I invented an eccentric aristocrat with a humorous outlook on life. This character also came from a deeply painful background but unlike my previous characters, he didn't carry the weight around and imbue the "troubled past." He fiercely denied it and ran from it, and refused to admit it. Knowing this, it wasn't my duty as a roleplayer to lead the conversation so I could talk about his dead wife and cruel parents, instead I came up with ways so that he could distract himself from thinking about it. He would pop a joke off as a defense mechanism and because most people I RP with had characters that were just as self-absorbed as they are, it was usually pretty easy to avoid dealing with my character's issues.