What characters do you find hard to play?

[LogicfromLogic]

So, I have noticed something about my writing. I have only played calm quiet characters, and I seem unable to play that hyper active, outgoing character, or those quiet yet angry characters. I always find myself playing deep thinking, calm, collected yet not afraid to stand up and say something when they get stepped on (if I am using that term correctly), or they feel that they must speak/do something out of their character. I have really tried to play characters that weren't calm and collected, I've tried playing that hot headed person that can't seem to sit still.


I got disinterested in that character really, really fast. And I don't exactly know why, but it seems that I can't keep that character going. But whenever I play a calm character, I nail it. Maybe it is because I myself and a rather calm person, and it is hard to rile me. But that to me is another problem; I cannot seem to pull some of my traits out of that character (thus why I'd never be a very good actor because I can never really differ from what my demeanor is, if someone asked me to play a hot tempered, loud/outspoken person, I'd fail miserably at it because that voice of reason (my reasoning) comes back to me and tells me to think over how to react without me even realizing it) and perhaps that is why I cannot play characters that differ so much from my personality.


What about you?

 

[Rainjay]

I have issues with male characters in general. It's probably accountable to mine both 1) reading novels with female protags and 2) not having many male friends to observe for writing purposes. I don't really know much about male behavior that isn't a stereotype and prefer not to write stereotypes into characters via gender. That and I just prefer playing a female, but either way with males, I feel like I'm doing something wrong pretty consistently, which isn't really a positive influence for trying to play males more often.

So talking about female characters I guess, I find it hard to play really hot headed or preppy characters, or most talkative, extroverted characters. Also accountable to mine being socially awkward, probably. I can hardly hold conversation even in OOC, so writing a character that is believable and not annoyingly energetic (in the "i want to hug everyone and I cant shut up and omgomgomgogmogmgomgomgomg" way) is pretty hard.

 

[lostfaith]

I tried to play an overly friendly, outgoing character once.

It hurt.

Besides that I find I have trouble playing stupid characters, or rather unintelligent characters. I can't think of a single character of mine that wasn't portrayed in at least some way as smarter than average. That probably comes from the fact that I tend to play highly specialized characters, a habit born out of most of my early RPs being very combat-focused.

I also find distrustful characters difficult, but I think that's because they pose problems when other PCs are joining the group and create unnecessary drama that, in my opinion, takes away from the story. I can play delicate characters but I often find myself downplaying any aversion to to blood and gore.

 

[Nemaisare]

I have trouble playing characters that discriminate, or are just plain assholes from either a not thinking things through standpoint or just a plain that's how they do standpoint. They almost always wind up having good reasons for being buttheads. Which is not really a bad thing, but I have yet to figure out a method to portray them as douches without being somewhat sympathetic. This is possibly a strange thing to want to accomplish, but I'd like to be able to manage it at least once, just to have the experience and figure out what works, because I've got a pretty long list of what doesn't.

Beyond that, my other difficulty is fairly similar to LogicfromLogic's, since mellow, laidback characters are apparently my forte. I don't mind this fact, they can be a useful grounding point and anchor when rps get hectic, but it can creep annoyingly persistently into characters that I didn't mean to make laidback or mellow. It happens fairly regularly to me in a chat setting, luckily not quite as often in thread settings. Some of it, I do think is my brain going all of the nope! when rps get a little crazy and trying to rectify the situation through my character's actions. Occasionally, it works out, but when I have a character who should be freaking out instead of sitting back and saying "Woah now, let's just take it easy here" I really need to focus to avoid them doing just that. I am weak when facing the lack of other calming influences. :/

 

[Jorick]

I can't play children well at all. They end up being either one-dimensional stereotypes or adults in everything but age and appearance, usually the former. I don't really like children, so I tend to lean heavily on the negative traits (crying a lot, throwing tantrums, whining, being rebellion about stupid shit, etc.) so they almost always end up just being a plain old brat that could be swapped out with any other minor brat child character in anything else. This plus my general dislike of playing child characters means I haven't even tried one for years. It's just not worth the hassle.

I also have issues playing full on stupid characters. Simple-minded is fine, as long as I can make them intelligent about certain things or capable of solid thinking if they're given time. Run of the mill stupid can also be okay, because I can make them snappy with jokes or street smart or so on. I haven't ever been able to pull off playing a straight up stupid to his/her core character though, because some kind of intellect always manages to sneak through. My hulking brutes who start off mindless end up being witty or highly skilled at strategy, my dumb yokels end up spouting sage wisdom in the form of old sayings, and my dimwitted divas end up being quite smart when it comes to dealing with people. The worst part is their speech. Trying to dumb down my writing for the things they say is atrocious, because my general mode of writing is pretty smooth flowing, almost stream of consciousness, and I can't do that well whilst also consciously thinking about dumbing down the vocabulary in use. For example, I just used fucking 'whilst' in a sentence and I didn't think twice about it until I read it over again, for crying out loud. That kind of thing slipping into dumb character dialogue tends to ruin it.

I also can't deal with totally passive characters. I have a character that's a full on pacifist, but she is still very active and makes choices all the time instead of following the lead. Mixtures are fine, because sometimes even a usually very aggressive character will take a step back and let someone else call the shots, but full passivity? I've seen some people roleplay that way and I just can't do it. It makes me feel like I'm demanding that another player hold my hand and guide me through everything, like my character is just an accessory they tote around for looks, and that's just no fun at all.

 

[Asena]

Like Jorick, I also have a problem playing children. But also I guess I hate children. So no surprise there.

I also have an issue with playing really girly girls... I've played them before, and I guess I play them fine, but I lose interest so fast. I guess it's the same playing super manly men, too.

 

[Killjoy]

I'm equally mediocre at all personality types.

But, I do find genuinely nasty, aggressive characters difficult to play. Writing their dialogue makes me cringe on the inside. They always end up fitting that "jerk with a heart of gold" trope by the time I'm through with them and I hate it.

 

[Ray]

Children and overly passive characters are ones that I generally find difficult to play.

 

[Ser K+]

I have a hard time playing idiots, religion devout, and flat characters.

Oh. And my females are usually overly nice or overly crude, if not a flat out tomboy.
(Which I probably never will RP as.)

 

[AutumnWyvern]

No one personality type is coming to mind that I'm bad at. But I have a big issue with rping canon characters in a fandom rp. Granted, I am told that I am rping these characters just fine, but I still worry and fret. I once got booted for inactivity in an rp because it took me so long to post because I was worried it would be too ooc. I guess when it gets down to it I'm just not comfortable playing a character that wasn't made by me, especially when I feel like I'm being judged/criticized by other fans of the character (even if, in reality, I'm not).

 

[Brovo]

Anything to do with adult characters that pervasively pursue perverted parasitic relationships with children is generally something I feel vividly uncomfortable with. I can do it, but I find it outright a little stressful to get into the mindset of such a character. Violent murderers I can deal with, even rapists who go after adults, but if it involves lusting after children? Nope. I am not comfortable with that and I will never be comfortable with that, even in a fantasy.

Anything else is fine, I've been a GM for years, I can write the most despicable human beings to the most positive of lights, from frustratingly naive children to wise old sages, and everything between... Though the one trait that will always bother me is any kind of sexual interest in children. Just... Blah. BLAAHHHH. Disgusting!

 

[Diana]

Passive characters can be difficult for me. >:[ Ones that are TOO quiet/shy/etc to proactively get involved. I am an aggressive player, so my characters tend to be very active get-in-to-things kind of people so I can make things happen in the roleplay.

I have a hard time play older cougar women characters when I am doing an older woman/younger man pairing. XD The irony is not lost on me seeing as I married a younger man. I don't know why I don't care for it, I can't seem to get in to that role. I don't have the same problem playing older men with much younger women. So I dunno what it is. @__@

Sometimes playing a guy is difficult for me. I can't as easily slip in to that role, because I am an immersive roleplayer and I am so CRAZY feminine female, that stepping in to the life of a man can be really hard. O__O It takes a lot of focus and concentration for me to write for a male character.

 

[Roose Hurro]

Hmmm...

Given I don't play human characters, I find myself rather free when it comes to just letting go. I have no problem with female characters, even though I'm male. I have no problem playing children, from newborn to teenagers. I don't find myself restricted when it comes to nasty characters, though... really, I'm not all that "practiced" or honestly interested in playing "evil" characters.

Personalities? I've played everything from a hyper-active toddler to a goofball (said toddler's dad) to an angsty, predatory little nad-eater alllll the way up through awkward/hormonal teenagers to wise old codgers. One of those last, a librarian, of all things. Heh.

So, to be brief, I don't find characters hard to play as much as I "find" characters uninteresting to play. In other words, not within my "standards" of acceptability.

 

[71372]

I know that feeling, it is not easy trying to play something too different than the personality you are used to.

Here's something that might help though:


Try playing a part of that personaliTy.

Like you can still play a quiet, calm individual but he gets excited over a particular something. Say, books.


Whenever a character mentions books, he gets all wide eyed and talkative about it.


This way you can practice that style of personality every once in awhile. Then if It works out, go on to someone a tad more outgoing in your next roleplay with two subjects they get high over.


Soon you'll get used to the character type when you reach 3 or more subjects in a character. :) It's just my experience. I used to not be able to play characters that were villians, or had very unrefined manners. But now, I'm playing a wizard who can't care less how anyone feels! :)

 

[RiniPinja]

I agree with AutumnWyvern, I can NOT play fandoms. Being too OOC for a character is like an insult to that character, and I wouldn't be able to forgive myself if I did such a thing. And besides, if someone else made their backstory, I just can't seem to get myself to be "one with the character" in a sense, because I'm busy trying to be "one with the author/creator." And becoming a real person is hard - I'm no actor. o.o

As far as personalities go... I'm generally pretty flexible. Males are generally harder for me, and it'll take me a while before I can ease into their mind, but I'll get it at some point. But there are 2 that are very difficult for me.

The perfect person. The person that's absolutely good at everything. I just... No. No one is perfect. And it's too boring. Also, this is way too hard for me to play. I don't know how a perfect person is. What IS perfect? I use them as NCP usually, but they're never important and always very shallow.

The purely evil person. I truly do believe nobody was born evil, there's always something that makes them evil (whether it be mental illness, tragic past, etc). So my "evil" person is actually good in his own mind. He's not killing people because... Well, he woke up one day and decided to kill. He's killing someone because *blah blah blah*.

 

[Minibit]

I have trouble playing children, partly because I find the roles boring, and partly because children are nearly always of far less use and far more burden than adult or even teenaged characters. I don't like playing teenagers either, but I can when I need to