[ SECRET POST #6245 ]

[case]

⌈ Secret Post #6245 ⌋

Warning: Some secrets are NOT worksafe and may contain SPOILERS.


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03.
[20,000 leagues]



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05.
[Scarlet Nexus]



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07. [WARNING for discussion of Israel/Palestine conflict, genocide, etc]

































Notes:

Secrets Left to Post: 00 pages, 00 secrets from Secret Submission Post #892.
Secrets Not Posted: [ 0 - broken links ], [ 0 - not!secrets ], [ 0 - not!fandom ], [ 0 - too big ], [ 0 - repeat ].
Current Secret Submissions Post: here.
Suggestions, comments, and concerns should go here.

Comments

[fscom]

04. https://i.imgur.com/NMfuq0R.png

[(Anonymous)]

My opinion under the comment secret for this remains the same for the actual secret.

You can play whatever character you want, but it's going to take the trust of a group who wants to play like that too, and expecting every single new DnD group you join to be down for this is asking a lot. Most people playing DnD are doing so to escape real life for a bit, they want to have some chill fun once every week/two weeks/month or whenever they get to play. Also as a DM: you clearly have no grasp as to how much work actually goes into making a campaign that's fun and engaging for everyone, I cannot pay special attention to just one person.

Your wants do not supersede others wants or comfort and other people are not 'doing it wrong' because you think their way is boring or 'not RP'. Frankly I've met far too many self-absorbed power-gamers in DnD who not only ruin the vibe for everyone else, but also suck at roleplay because they're just being dick and expect no pushback on it.

It isn't more difficult to play an evil or asshole character, even if they get better, it's just a different character type and one that takes a lot of work.

[(Anonymous)]

Trust is where o fall on this as well. In a group that knows you and knows you can pull that character off without disrupting the game, that's fine.

But in a new group, without that trust? I'd be against having a character like that as well.

[(Anonymous)]

THANK YOU, so much this.

Like, I LOVE roleplay, I've been in the DM seat my share of times as well as being a player, and I love characters who are in some fundamental way very different from me. AND I main rogues.

Not ONCE have I played an evil/loner/edgelord rogue, not because those characters can't be interesting, but because I'm not the main character and everyone else is also there to have fun.

I've played rogues who have that kind of *look*, I've played rogues who are gruff, or have an itchy trigger finger in a fight, or who are very damaged by loss. But I always play them as people who WANT to work with the group-- even when they have their own aims that they're using the party to achieve, they still share SOME common goal and some personal bonds with their fellow adventurers.

Especially if I'm the guy at the table who's giving the DM the most to work with in terms of handing out backstory-related plot hooks, I want to find ways of making a story the whole group's and making our characters rely on each other and connect to each other. And unless I have a group who's been playing together long enough to trust that it would be fun to, say, have an Evil campaign, it's not fun for anyone else when one person is That Guy, but also... when you're That Guy, YOU'RE not having as much fun roleplaying with the group. And there's a LOT of room to have growth and a character arc without starting all the way in edgelord territory.

[(Anonymous)]

This isn't other people failing to grasp the concept of roleplaying.

This is you failing to grasp the concept of playing a game with friends, for the purpose of enjoying spending time with them, both in and out of character.

You want to play an asshole edgelord? That's what solo video games are for. TTRPGs are for hanging out with your friends in a fantasy setting.

+1

[(Anonymous)]

Yup yup. Most people want to hang out and have fun, not put up with the type of assholes you deal with irl just for your own ~artistic expression~

[(Anonymous)]

The type of players who want to "roll a character and have an adventure/play an action/adventure game with some RP flavor or setting" where character-conflict usually = player-conflict because each player is joining the table as an individual with their own aims and goals, are different from players who want to "write a collaborative story/roleplay out the story of a party as a whole" in which each character is important and everyone is invested in all of them.

The former type of player makes up 99% of tables. The latter is probably what you're looking for, but much, much harder to find. And it's not that the former is bad or wrong, to be quite clear. There are plenty of lovely people who I play "action/adventure games" with but would not "write a story" with because they don't quite get how collab writing works or mistakenly assume collab writing is people taking turns leading the story wherever they want. If they ask "why would anyone ever RP a baddie" or think you're trying to "force" the party to face themes they don't want to face are the former type - avoid each other! You have a fundamentally different approach to the activity.

Good luck finding your collab group. It took a lot of filtering people out, but I found mine and it's awesome.

[(Anonymous)]

SA

Thread demonstrating the two types of players already, eh? Lol

[(Anonymous)]

> If they ask "why would anyone ever RP a baddie" or think you're trying to "force" the party to face themes they don't want to face are the former type - avoid each other! You have a fundamentally different approach to the activity.

I mean, OP also very much has to answer why the rest of a group would keep their character around. They very much have to figure that out. Because after a bit, most groups are probably gonna see if they can replace the megaracist with someone else that jives with the party, you know? They ignored this before, and kept insisting they were right and everyone else was wrong.

[(Anonymous)]

Our group bans Chaotic Neutral Rogues for a reason.

[(Anonymous)]

I usually play Chaotic Neutral Rogues, but, unless I have TALKED to the others about a very specific chaotic things that would be fun for EVERYONE, I try to keep it more Neutral Good or Chaotic Good. As everyone says, the goal is for everyone to have fun.

[(Anonymous)]

Ah, so that's what happened to this secret ;)

[(Anonymous)]

I've been playing DND for years now, in different groups and campaigns, I've never encountered anyone playing as their carebearsona. So your generalization of all DND players is way off.

Secondly, a character like yours requires skill to pull off in a way that doesn't annoy the other players and/or get you kicked from the table. You have admitted that you have no experience, so it might be better to make a less intense character for your first time. You don't need to make a goody-two-shoes, just give them less over-the-top flaws.

Also, DND is very unpredictable, even when the DM is running a module. You seem to have your character's entire story arc plotted out, but that's not going to work. What will you do if the story beats you're hoping for never happen? Your character needs to be flexible in regards to their possible futures.

Also also, different groups play differently. If the group you've been talking to has a playstyle that doesn't fit you, then you need to go out and find another group that suits you better.

[(Anonymous)]

Idt it's a lack of experience. "Don't play" doesn't mean "has never played." It seems to me more that the online experience, especially for younger and newer players, and the in person experience with older players is getting more and more different.

[(Anonymous)]

Seems like a D&D 5E kind of problem where this culture of "playing yourself but with pointy ears" seems to be rather big. On the other hand, not everyone wants to roleplay through (seemingly-)asshole-party-member-having-their-redemption-arc because that could lead to some intra-party conflict (or a specific type of it) that not everyone is interested in having at their table, so I guess I see both sides.

Good luck with finding a table that fits what you're looking for, OP. All I know is that it's out there somewhere and, yeah, it might not be D&D. Plenty of other games to try out, with plenty of other premises.

[(Anonymous)]

In the original thread OP seemed understanding and respectful of tables saying "sorry not our thing," but had run into many players asking "why would you ever do this" and implying they're a bigot for wanting to which is a different sort of question.

I agree this is likely a newer/younger/more casual players/tables problem though, along with a dose of that purity culture that seems to have come into fandom lately.

+1

[(Anonymous)]

whip up an OC or find a canon character who scratches your itch and join DWRP circes. meme it up on bakerstreet, join a game, whatever, you'll get to play a redemption arc with people who are very serious about the IC/OOC divide. or go old school and look for RP forums.

I don't play d&d precisely because I'm not here to sit at a table speaking in bad british accents with other people playing us-but-with-pointy-ears, but I've been actively roleplaying in LJ/DW RP circles for 15 years. Pick a venue, OP.

[(Anonymous)]

I mean they also ignored anyone asking why a bunch of characters that include the races their character is racist against would keep their megaracist around, so. Sometimes you have to shelve your dream character until you find a group willing to work with you instead of springing it on them immediately.

And given my own experiences, it's always a red flag when people want to start with this kind of character then whines they aren't allowed to because "everyone just wants to play themselves" instead of, you know, gaining trust and showing they can actually be fucking normal. Too many people have been burned by people who seemed normal at first then used tabletop to instead roleplay their racist fantasies while revealing themselves to be huge bigots. There's HUNDREDS of horror stories about this out there, and it's something I and many of my tabletop friends have experienced first-hand.

[(Anonymous)]

In the comment secret thread you came across as really defensive.

[(Anonymous)]

I'm going to reiterate what I said: a lot of people are burned by this type of character being a front, and are probably wondering what signs they missed about you being a megaracist.

But also: why should their party keep your racist dwarf around just because you wanna be Gimli But More Racist? Why would they not kick that character's ass to the curb? Like, you're completely ignoring that aspect. You did in the original thread, too, whenever anyone brought this up.

[(Anonymous)]

there's just

SUUUUUCH a huge amount of ground between "I want to roleplay a character who's not just me" and "I specifically want to play out a Fantasy MAGA Humiliation/Redemption arc"

like, some dnd characters I've played recently include
- neurotic hypercritical overcompensating divorced PTA wine mom
- weak-willed coward (who pulls his weight on the team because he's easily manipulated by his friends but the 'sdsgsdng THAT'S SCARY' can get played for comedy)
- cheerful complete nihilist idiot, no morals at all really except Wants To Have A Nice Time With Some Friends

None of these are me, all of them have SOME aspects of me, all of them have tons of opportunities for growth and arcs - but all of them are fun and funny to have at the table right from game 1. you can laugh at their antics in a way I personally would not find 'super fantasy racist' to be particularly pleasant to play with until they got their ass in gear some time in the next 6 months to a year irl. Regardless of whether the character still has motive to pull their weight mechanically, that stuff just...it's what I'm trying to escape when doing the Escapism Hobby, you know? And that can be an interesting element in an NPC, but for a PC it's like, man, really? We're stuck with that?

There's probably some people skilled enough to pull it off and some groups that would have fun with it, but I'm not surprised the majority of people you talked to were pretty hard against the idea. That's the kind of thing that does take the trust of an established group, as someone else said. And frankly, the fact that people not liking your ideal made you jump to a really judgemental 'nobody else really wants to roleplay like me, an artist with real dramatic vision' place, I'm not shocked that people who talked to you didn't much trust you to pull this off pleasantly.

[(Anonymous)]

This.

They ignored, when this was a thread, ANYONE pointing out that there's little reason for other characters to not leave the group with them around if they're who their character is racist toward or for the rest of the group to kick said character to the curb and just... You have to account for this. If your only reaction is, "Yeah, well, but I wanna play this! They pull their own weight!"

Mate, people in REAL life kick racist family members to the curb for the same shit. They're not about to put up with a STRANGER easily ICly.

[(Anonymous)]

Yeah, I'm with the people above that people giving you pushback and bafflement on why you want to play that character probably aren't uninterested in roleplaying characters different than themselves but simply uninterested in roleplaying a whole-ass redemption arc story for a single party member. Like, D&D is a collaborative story-telling game, and so you have to settle on a story that everyone wants to take part in telling, and holding an unpleasant party member's hand through their extended redemption arc is probably not a lot of people's idea of a fun time!

I get the frustration over people assuming you must be a Bad Person for wanting to play a Bad Person character, but framing it as "Well I guess they must hate roleplaying and just want to play themselves ¯\_(ツ)_/¯" as if that's the only explanation / only thing at play here is... weird.

[meadowphoenix]

op the fact of the matter is that people do have trouble separating table play and above the table dynamics, because frankly, the idea that people are even good at separating what their eyes see and their ears hear and their body feels without a very clearly differentiated context is really ridiculous. actors, aka professional roleplayers, can do that because its their literal job (and sometimes they aren't good at it either soo......) and a lot of them have trained and have practice in it. regular degular people do not have that skill! And it is a skill! so when you say that, people hear you saying you want to make the table difficult for everyone else, and yeah, i could understand why most people don't want to have to debrief or do aftercare after a game your character has made tense.

so that would be my advice to you. find actors, or wannabee actors or literary fans who nuanced conversations about villains who do dnd. they're much more likely to understand what you want to do.

[(Anonymous)]

bruh even they'd be wary if this is what OP opens with because they have very little reason to trust OP isn't using this as a mouthpiece. It's going to take a campaign at least to get people to trust you aren't actually a bigot when you suggest this kind of character, and that you really DO want to play together and not take up everyone's time with your loudmouthed bigot. Because OP can't even answer, in the original thread, why the other characters shouldn't kick theirs to the curb instead of coddling them through a redemption arc.

I wanna play certain characters in tabletop, but I haven't found the right campaign for the one I want to do. Because it requires specific things from the DM and the party both. I know my character might not ever happen. And that's sad but so fucking what.