Are you similar to your character?

Alright, so I think we all have more than one character aswell as all of our characters have multiple different personality traits. While the obvious answer might be, "what dude, no of course i'm not my character" I think it's highly likely that atleast -one- of the traits we have given them, somehow represents us IRL? Or does it not?

I'm going to go ahead myself and say that my characters have more "opposites" than similarities of the traits I have.

Furenia Krast: So no, I'm definetly not a sadistic warmonger, neither do I do anything "pagan" IRL. One could just stereotipicly assume "alright, this guy listens to metal probably aswell" which is false. I'm actually the "Let's all be friends, get along and cuddle" type of person which is the completele opposite of everything I RP with this character.

Tobias Redeye: This is the only character I've ever RPed that has tiny bits of things that one could connect to my personality IRL aswell. No, it's not being a murderer hell-bent on killing women due to the curse of his ex-wife and neither does constant flirting or even harrasing in an attempt to soothe his curse fall under one of those traits Here's the connections: Despite his cold blooded, deranged mentality, he does have another side and that one being incredibly protective over those he cares about (though definetly not many) AND quite a guy heavily into romance, cuddling, stargazing etc etc lovely hearts warm milk and squeaky birds. Too bad he has a curse.

Right so, as for similarities: Very, perhaps even too much protective over those he considers close and quite a fool for romance.

So yeah, I tend to pick more the opposite traits than the ones that would resemble myself IRL because well, why would I play to be myself when I can just do something completely different and try out a new persona? I throw in a very small sprinkle of my "real self" into the character so I have a better way to immerse myself and get to "feel" my character better. Meaning, despite the very small hint of my real self inside of Tobias - it is enough to get me more immersed and care about him.

Furenia on the other hand, I did not put any of my characteristics inside of her, atleast not intentionally or that I could think of at the moment.

Nuff' talk from me, let me hear it from you guys and gals. How is it with you and what's your opinion on these things?

Demurral is a milder version of the real me.

Lynne is a -fair- bit of a self-insert, though in real life I'm the least determined/zealous/religious person. But her flipping occasionally between depressed cynicism and snarky confidence is pretty similar to myself, if exaggurated a bit more.

Elyza feels more like a seperate character, given she's naive, stubborn and extremely vengeful (and also highly illiterate and impoverished) but still, she follows my sort of style of RP where I like to create fairly likeable characters within pretty "unlikeable" factions (what with Lynne being Scarlet and Elyza being a former Defias bandit)

I had a character based on myself IRL once but nobody liked it so ehthis is a joke, before you get ahead of yourself.

Artemis is a lot like me, he's just me but like super over extended fantasy aggressive me

I've played one character who was, in hindsight, very similar to me, but she lasted a matter of months. The rest are like I've woken up after an acid trip and seen some crazy mosaic I made out of my own hair and broken bottle glass.

Jack resembles me a lot. He wants to treat every race equally, he's awkward around girls, he's hot headed, he can't simply let things go.

The short answer: No, none of them. I do not RP to reflect myself. But inadvertently I have become similar to my characters over time. Especially Arabella.

Helmut does not resemble me very much, which is why I love playing him.

*We have very different views on politics (He is very rightwing while I lean to the left), he is for a military state with mass control and executions ( I am not).

*He viewes races very different and is, in general, not very humane (I try to fight racism etc everyday).

*He has the mentality of not giving people second chances and is, in general, very unfair to people.

*He sees himself as the greatest person in the world, smarter and above all. People around him are weak, few are at the same level.

*He is short, I am pretty tall.

*He holds his alcohol very well. I do not.

Are we simular in any way? We are both fond of fancy food. We both like the idea of being the "spider in the web", and wanting to know everything that goes on. I guess that is the biggest trait that has bled out over to to him.

To keep it short, no, none of my characters is alike me take Tygos for example he is my opposite

my mains were priest and rogue and dk while irl im a mage, so no.

Dwyburn wrote:my mains were priest and rogue and dk while irl im a mage, so no.

Hahaha this one wins

Um. Hm.

Lannael: Germophobe, selfish prick who adores cooking and scruffy, tall men. Short, feminine and loves dresses? I think the only likeness between me and him is that we both like beards?

Simaria: A girl with a screwed sense of world view, excellent memory, I think the biggest likeness there is that both me and her is bit tomboyish irl. Other then that, we are nothing alike.

Thondalar: Naive, kind, dumb, trusting. Of all my characters, I think this is the char I resemble the most. Except I don't trust people easilly at all. I do try to please people too much though, which is not always best!

Thaldir: Weak minded addict, a massive firt, violent and paranoid. he is also fairly average tall, but muscular. Don't think I have anything in common with Thaldir at all.

The day "Cunt" becomes a playable race. Maybe. Just maybe we'll see some similarities.

I can't summon swans. This makes me sad, and distances me from being Arenfel.

Also a lot of my characters have probably touched vagina to summon their children via pregnancy and that's not something I've done either.

I'm close to being my Pandaren warrior, except I just challenge people to Yugioh or something instead of deadly sword fights.

Lomenár: Xenophobic and racist, stubborn, distant, hides her emotions constantly, unnapproachable, fiercly loyal and protective, huge fear of crowds, does not like being the center of attention, responsibility and duty weighs heavily on her.

Sinami: Introverted, social, has a strong yearning to fit in somewhere, kindhearted, fiercly loyal and protective, a prankster and has a wicked sense of humor, prude.

Of the two, I think I have more in common with Sinami than with Lomenár, but certainly not everything. Like the two of them I am fiercly loyal and protective, and like Sinami I am a social introvert. But that's about it... oh, and the fact that they're both really good singers. ^^

My old main Skaraa was scholarly, sometimes arrogant, deep down loving, caring, generally a kindly old man. He was very religious, conservative in related respects, but generally relatively liberal.

Into Skaraa I poured my arrogance, exaggerated into his persona of almost considering himself the only competent being on Azeroth. I'm a very loving guy, I threw that in there too; whilst I am not an old man in any respect I could imagine myself as a kindly grandfather or uncle figure given time.
I'm not religious in any way, that was a source of difference between us that departed our personalities. But I am, dare I say, intelligent and like to study things; hence the scholarly aspect of Skaraa.

Really what Skaraa came down to was "What would I be like if I came from Argus?"
He diverged heavily during his character development, eventually falling down a path of choatic immorality in his desperate attempt to save those he loved and defeat the Legion. Extreme utilitarianism in a way.

That was my first character. Eyri I am not so sure about; he is the opposite end of the scale, younger and eager to prove himself. The opposite to Skaraa in many ways. But stuck with this philosophy that was drilled into his head about assassination being good and so on; saving lives both sides by killing strategic targets. Maybe lacks one or two critical thinking skills due to his relatively young age (for an elf). So it is hard to say, maybe Eyri is one side of my life and Skaraa is the other, maybe I am somewhere in the middle. Based upon how I made Skaraa and that Eyri is largely the opposite of that. It's an interesting thought.

I did play a character, one of my favourites, called Isidore a few years back. He was based on the character Dexter from the tv show of the same name; in other words he was a sociopath and serial killer. Nothing like me at all, I hasten to add.

Most of my characters; Vallure, Scafon, Carraen, newly Malacarz. They have little if anything in common with me that I think of immediately when looking at them. They all had specific concepts like Isidore that were interesting to role play but not really linked to me in any distinctive way.

Vaell is nearly my opposite. Except, he has a small penis.

No.

The general consensus so far seems to be mostly no.

On a slightly more serious note, I don't think you'd be able to RP a character well if you can't emphatize with him/her on some level. So while no character I've ever RPed has been too similiar too to myself, I've always brought some aspect of myself into them. Theodoric for example had my ambition, but different world views and personal history. I imagine him being some of my sides exaggerated without others to balance them etc. That ofc gives him 90% a separate personality, but those 10% that I can recognize and use to portray him in a believable fashion.

Hardly even noticed until I tried RPing Tar-Chan. His cheerfulness, down-to-earth attitude, and childish disregard of the concept of "worrying" was incredibly hard to pull off. Like, I might have managed to write him well as a side character in a book or something, but not regularly impro with him, as the RP format demands.

As for physical attributes, they never really made any difference to my RP.

TLDR: No, but I need to give them some common ground with me, no matter how despicable or saintly they are compared to me.

All writers give their characters some different aspect of themselves, whether they do it consciously or not. Often a blown-up or exaggerated aspect, and when all these characters and the author is put side-by-side, you often wouldn't see the similarity at all.

But it's there. It's how we can empathize with them and play/write them.

Yeah, but infusing characters with certain traits you possess and amplify them, reduce them, play with them, subvert them or even enshrining some of them, doesn't make them similar to you. Heck, it's in the similarities that a character distinguishes itself from its author, not in the specific traits the author is not.

Besides there's no need to RP if your character is just you.

Oh that is true. Was more thinking in regards to what Dwy said, and trying to agree with him in a complicated way, I guess.

That was what I was trying to convey with Skaraa - you blow things up or reduce them. Thinking someone along the lines of "what would I be like if.." can be a good starting point with your original concept.
But other time Character Development is going to pull your toon in one direction over another; our personality is partly a product of our environment after all. Over time characters change and diverge from the original persona.

They become unique.