Morality within Roleplaying

[Moonlost]

I recently made a post over on my Deviantart journal. But the more I think about it, the more answers I'd like to the couple of questions I presented there. So, I'm rephasing it slightly and putting it here. The quoted stuff is just relaying personal experiences, feel free to skip it if you wish.

So, I do a fair bit of roleplaying. I have a Dungeons and Dragons session or two each week and I'm also involved in the rise of the Shadows RP on these forums. I don't do any real RP in-game in World of Warcraft, but most of my characters have some internal backstory and personality. It's just who I am, I like making my characters actual characters.

I bring this up because I've become aware of something during my D&D session last night. We have two new members to our game. They've only been playing the game for a short while with us now and they're pretty cool guys. They're also really enthusiastic about playing and are genuinely excited about the game. But more and more, I find I can't stand the characters they choose to play. I kinda hate myself for it in a way, because I know that they're having fun with it. Who am I to disagree with how they have fun?

So, what's wrong with these characters? Well, part of it is inexperience with roleplaying. These mates of mine don't really get into that whole aspect of the game as much as I do. They like combat and cool powers. And normally that's alright, D&D is kinda cool that way in that you don't necessarily have to roleplay. But at the same time, what little roleplay they do with this characters is, well, morally wrong. I hesitate to use the word evil, but someone else could easily say so.

Let me give an example from tonights game. I'm playing the groups healer: a Dragonborn Warlord. I haven't really fleshed her out much beyond a generic honourable soldier at this point. My companions are an indifferent Githzerai Seeker (think a hunter mixed with an elemental shaman), a ruthless Warforged Barbarian and a cruel Human Swordmage. We get asked to interigate a captured hobgoblin for information regarding an attack earlier in this village. Said hobgoblin is in stockades, all we have to do is get him to talk about why his band attacked the city and where they took the people they kidnapped. The first thing the Warforged and the Human do is result to torture. Mostly just punching and hitting the hobgoblin, but had the guards not been there they would have gone onto using weapons on the guy.

Needless to say, I was not very comfortable with this style of play and I did not have fun. In fact, I'm having a hard time coming up with reasons why my character should stick with these guys after we rescue the townsfolk. I know they're just having fun and exploring what they can and can't do in D&D. I shouldn't force them to play how I want them to. But I'm not having fun myself; I find myself not looking forward to our next gaming session because of this. I guess this brings up another point; why am I so uncomfortable with this?

And I suppose the answer to that is because I put a little of myself into each character I make, and I use those characters to explore my own morals and emotions. Out of a great deal of characters I have created and played over the years, only a handful have truely been evil. Hell, even most of the "evil" characters I play in the Pokemon RP have sme sort of value that I can sympathise with. Seventeen is a savage and remorseless killer, driven by instinct. But she also has a fierce loyaly to Scarab and her pack, although it doesn't show all that often. Venin, an otherwise sociopathic monster, has a profound love for her own freedom. Gamin is a lonely soul who follows Seventeen because she's the only one who actually thought he was worth a crap. Even Insins, an amoral scientist who uses pokemon to further his scientific experiments, doesn't hurt others just to be an evil scientist. He does it for scientific curiosity, to learn what happens and why, to further the collective knowledge of mankind.

The only character that I've played recently that is well and truely evil is a D&D character named Shader. She's a defiler mage, which means she draws magic from living things around her in order to cast her spells. Her ultimate goal is to become a dragon-king, the ultimate personification of defiling magic. And, surprise, I find I do not enjoy playing her as much as I thought I would. My intentions on creating her were just to play as a defiling dragon. Because an uber powerful magic dragon kicking arse and taking names sounds fun right? I also thought it would be fun exploring my own dark side, just how far I was willing to go. Apparently, it's not very far.

I just really feel uncomfortable playing morally "evil" characters. This is something that extends beyond the RP table and into video games as well. For example, in Dragon Age and Mass Effect, you have the option of going a ruthless character should you want. In fact, you're rewarded for doing so with achievements. But I have never been able to really play an evil character. It just feels wrong to me, my sense of morality rebels against it. This is to even in a game like Fable, where ultimately the choices you make have little consequence other than what you look like and what some NPCs shout at you.

I know a few other roleplayers are on this forum, so let me pose a few questions for anyone willing to answer them.
Why do you roleplay?
How do you create your character's personality?
Do you feel comfortable playing an all-out "evil" character, or working closely with someone who does?
If you do enjoy playing an "evil" character, why?
And what do you do when you feel uncomfortable with a situation that crops up in a RP?

[Rawr]

In D&D Im always some type of chaotic aligned creature, depending on what the "forced" alignment is, exp. Assimar are always good, so Im chaotic good. Being chaotic gives me leeway with my characters in D&D and I am told Im very chaotic in RL (being Bipolar seems to help with role playing lol).

In games like WoW it depends on what Im playing at the moment (race/class). When Im my Tauren druid Witherfang, Im very standoffish and don't talk much to other races, but fiercely loyal to those I befriend even if they're not Taurens. As my Orc huntress I loath humans for enslaving my parents and all other orcs, I will attack any flagged humans I see, even if I know I cant win. She also hates mages and warlocks for the magic they use she feels is a perversion of nature and wont go near them unless forced (my shaman and druids feel the same way). She also doesnt trust paladins or priests. Most of my characters will attack humans on sight, my druid wont attack other druids or even duel them and I dont RP alliance, makes me feel weird as I think the alliance is mostly evil (humans most of all).

Thats my RPing in a nutshell.

[Azunara]

Why do you roleplay? I'm a writer. I love to use my wit and skill as a person who reads frequently to write. And RP, to me, has always been a huge collabaritive story between multiple people, and I absolutely love it. It's fun to use other people's action to develop my character. And that's the best part: My characters are never planned out, besides one or two traits. Sol could've been a totally different person if her sister wasn't killed. I had never planned in the beginning to kill Dialga and bring Cro in. WoW wise, Azu wasn't always an insane kitty, she was normal at one point. My characters change, and that's what I love about RP. The changing because of what others do.

How do you create your character's personality? Like I said, I very rarely plan out my character's personality. It will always be one or two traits, such as, "Proud" or "Foolish" or "Vain" or "Stubborn." From there, I add a quick backstory hashed together to affect their personality. "Parents were killed by orcs. So and So thereby hates orcs and their allies with a passion." And ta-da. There's my character, all made.

Do you feel comfortable playing an all-out "evil" character, or working closely with someone who does?
Yeah. When I RP with my family, my mom tends to RP a very evil character. My brother usually plays violent, semi evil characters, so I end up dealing with rather dark characters frequently.


If you do enjoy playing an "evil" character, why? The only evil character I've taken a stab at was Kiren, who died, and another char in another small roleplay with my friends, Crimson. Crim ended up redeemed. So I can play evil characters, yet they always end up dead or redeemed. It's odd.

And what do you do when you feel uncomfortable with a situation that crops up in a RP? I just say my mind and go, "Look. I really am a bit uncomfortable. Can we do X, Y, and Z to possibly fix it?" Always worth a shot. And if it doesn't work, politely resign and leave?

[Chrizesu]

I have been accused of roleplaying as an escape. While this may be the case, I mainly enjoy interacting with other characters. I get a sort of high from a good successful game. It's also an addiction, being able to explore how others think. In game I don't have a lot of the morality issues others have. This allows me to play the bad guys when needed in a story. A good bad guy is one that acts out of a twisted point of view. Just being bad for no reason is out of taste, which some guys just don't get.

Sometimes I start off characters without a personality and I let them adapt and evolve as I use them, others a lot of thought goes into the character. Others actually come from dreams. Some of my favorite characters are dream characters. My favorite characters are actually chaotic neutral ones. Why? Well probably because I identify the best with that alignment.

If I'm not very comfortable with rp is normally in situations my characters wouldn't be comfortable either, and normally would speak out their discomfort. I've not had a lot of moments were I've had such trouble anyways.

I would probably say more, but I'm not feeling well.

[Makoes]

I'd like to roleplay...however I am unsure of how to truely go about doing this. I've spent some time on some RP srvers, and seen some people really into it, however I guess its harder for me because I dont have anyone who can help me develope my RP into something more then the very basics.

My Main hunter has a bit more of a back story and that was something that just emerged without me really knowing about it. She likes to kill things, hates other people though she does get along alright with a few guildies who have managed to get on her good side. She prefers the company of beasts more then anything, and the viciousness of her Hyena companion matches her perfectly. but alas I am not on an RP server with her, so most of it is in my head, with only a few side comments that do tend to take people by surprise.

As for alignments I really prefer a neutral one. More of an indiferents that changes on the situation. I'd have no trouble torturing someon to get information from them, and I guess it stems from the fact that in a game, you can do that sort of thing without the reprocusions in the real world.
And yet, another of my characters, is a happy-go-lucky winged anthro-fox who's centuries of years old. He'd be more then happy to joke and be friends then fight...but if push comes to shove, he will bring the very elements to his beck and call.

I have no problems playing with other people who play an evil character but only if I am playing a character that is not so cheerful. But I think the biggest and hardest problem I have with actually RP'ing is how others might judge me for the characters I play...

If someone is playing a character that your own character is not overly compatable with, maybe you should discusse the issue with the person(s) or even the DM and maybe you can all find something that works more. If these people are new to the game, it could be that they havent considered how thier actions might effect the other players.
Get together before/after a game, share some food and get to know the people a bit more, it might help.

And maybe, since in D&D theres usually a party leader, said person could lay down some groundrules of behavior for the group to prevent strife...

[Turgus]

Before I get started I guess I would give two pieces of advice to you about the problem that you are encountering with your friends.

First, many people have not explored the darker aspects of their personality, and will use fantasy games to "try out" their darker urges and learn more about themselves.
Of course, they are not doing this consciously, but just be aware that this may be the case.

Second, they probably are not going about the game in the same way you are.
It can be difficult to understand what people want to get out of a "gaming" session; some people just want to sit back, relax and hack/ slash stuff up.
Others enjoy immersing themselves into the genre and RPing a character.
I guess I would suggest that you sit down and ask your friends what they want out of your "gaming" sessions, and it may be that they just want a combat heavy game.

On a side note, some people look at morality as a "black and white" question, versus the "shades of grey" that it really is.
Is torturing a "terrorist" ok? It all depends on who you ask.

So on to your questions.

Why do you roleplay?

It has been a while since I have RPed, but I guess I really did it to have fun in an alternate reality, and to try stuff out that I would not be able to do in the real world. Like flying on the back of a dragon, or blowing things up with fireballs.

How do you create your character's personality?
My characters had varying degrees of my own personality, and the rest of their personality would be created from other origins, TV characters, people I know, etc. When I was younger the characters had small amounts of my own personality as I explored different sides of myself, but nowadays they would be very similar to my own.

Do you feel comfortable playing an all-out "evil" character, or working closely with someone who does?

I find it kind of difficult to play a real "evil" character, selfish sure, unscrupulous fine, "true evil" pretty hard.
Playing with someone who plays an "evil" character can be very hard, especially when you are trying to play a decently "good" character and you find your characters coming into conflict.

And what do you do when you feel uncomfortable with a situation that crops up in a RP?

I would generally have a light conversation with the person during a break and try to find a way to resolve the "character conflict" before it comes to a head "in-game."
This can be hard to do, especially depending on the maturity of the people playing, but it does head off the problem before it makes anyone uncomfortable or mad.
RPing is supposed to be fun after all.

[Moonlost]

Thanks for the replies all. It's interesting seeing different peoples views on the subject.


Rawr: I've had a great deal of fun with the Chaotic Good alignment. Lawful good actually brings up a number of interesting questions, such as does your own code of law supercede the laws of other nations? And while that can be fun to explore, it's also nice to play a character who just doesn't give a rats arse and does what he feels is right.

Azu: Evil is best when it's in the family eh?

Makoes: Don't worry about people judging you about your RP skills. I have the same issue, and sometimes you just need to dive in head on, you know? Dabble your feet over in the RP pool we have here. See what happens, you won't regret it.
And thus far this party doesn't actually have a leader. It's just something that never really seems to happen in our games.

Turgus: I understand that exploring the darker side on oneself can be fun. I have a hard time doing it myself, but I understand the premise. Truth be told I'm a little envious of people who can easilly delve into that part of themselves. I just end up feeling all icky.
And yeah, my current D&D players are very hack and slashy. XD

[Loethlin]

Ok, this seems really important, for some reason. :-/
I started playing D&D on my 12th birthday. So, at the time of writing this post, I've been playing various pen and paper RPGs for over 15 years, tried most of the available systems EVER. More often than not, several editions of the same system, and I don't just mean D&D, and so on and so forth. And MMOs followed only a year later.
And I have to say this:
There is NOTHING more annoying and making me want to club a seal than a person trying to RP an evil character, when they're not equipped for it.
I've only met ONE person who can competently role play someone evil. Only one. In fifteen years. And I've played with the most renown players/GMs in my whole country.
So far, the only people trying to force their evil characters on the rest of the group were the noobs trying to screw the whole session/campaign up. It's really annoying.
So, unless I get a really good characher story on why someone is Evil, I ban it.
If he can't roleplay it? I BAN IT! Or change their alignment by force.
Or I just BAN THEM ALLTOGETHER!
I myself am actually Chaotic Neutral, bordering on Chaotic Good, or the other way around, depending on who is speaking, and I am not claiming I know how to roleplay an evil character.
Sure, I've done it as a DM, but it's never been for an extended period of time. I know I could do it (psychologist!), but I'm scared. I just don't want to touch the evil side of myself.
Do you think Captain Kirk was content to meet his evil side? No he wasn't. And neither was he happy to see it actually exist. But he had to. And he had to accept it.
I do not have to, I'll just let it soak in all the issues I have for a bit more.

The darkness and emo crap you hide. If you could at least present the darkness and emo in an acceptable fashion... Most people can't.

Role-Playing Games should be fun. They were never meant to bring out the worst of you. Only the best: imagination, creativity, love of life, the very heart you're scared to wear on your sleeve.

And now I turned it into a wall of text.

So, to answer your questions.
Why do you roleplay?
I spend time with my friends, I love discovering them in all the various incarnations they appear to me. Also, awesome psychological experiment. Not unlike reading Mary Sue fanfiction. Only my friends are smart enough not to make Mary Sues.
How do you create your character's personality?
I try to complete a comprehensive and logical profile.
Do you feel comfortable playing an all-out "evil" character, or working closely with someone who does?
See the wall of text above.
If you do enjoy playing an "evil" character, why?
Ahah, see the wall of text above.
And what do you do when you feel uncomfortable with a situation that crops up in a RP?
If it's the situation you describe, I'd probably yell at them and shoo them off and try my own methods: psychological torture (shrink 4 lyfe, amirite?).

Oh, yeah. Just to clarify. I NEVER role play via my computer, it's strange, I just don't feel it. It has to be personal. And on the MMO, you only find creeps anyway, most of the time. Or maybe I have a more of a "user" approach to technology.

[Gumballs]

Just a bit of background info on myself with regards to RPing. I've been RPing for just over a year now, but over the last few months I have taken a slight break, though I do with to get back into it. The main reason I stopped was because Wowhead (where I actively RP'd) was going through a HUGE slow period where almost all of the long time RPers such as myself went on breaks for various reasons. I have never RPed in game, though I'd like to try.


Why do you roleplay?

I roleplay because it's fun. I think it's fantastic the way a story can form out of multiple people writing about their character. It's a lot more fun to do character development through RP because it's generally unpredictable. Events may happen that you would have never thought of yourself, and that's the main reason why I like it. I'm a story writer and artist at heart and I simply can't resist these things.

How do you create your character's personality?

All my characters have bits of my personality traits in them. Initially I didnt realize this until someone pointed it out to me, and it's very true. When I make a character, I tend to take one characteristic about myself and inflate it, then work with RPs or backstories to make them more three dimentional. I'll give an example of the development for my first ever RP character, Llynarai Runesong, a blood elf huntress.

I created her back before I knew what a 'Sue' was. I won't go in depth but let's just say it involved demon sex and kids with a certain demon hunter. When I got into RP I decided I wanted to use her and rework her backstory. In real life I have a huge anger problem and I had never really played an angry character, so I based Llynarai to be sarcastic, snarky, rude, and miserable. She is bitch to the extreme. She had demonic runes on her shoulders and back which she hid, simply because my fondness for Illidan couldn't be completely removed from her character. I made it so she had studied under the Black Temple as an acolyte, then when Illidan fell she fled and tried to remove herself from demonic taint, becoming a hunter.

That was all I had when I started, and throughout the RP reasons for her being so secretive and bitter began to emerge, involving a friends character who was an ex-assassin killing her whole family. A bunch of stuff happened, including meeting a lover who later abandoned her, and she slowly went insane, beginning to drop her morals, among other things.

That's just an example of character development. Very little happens outside of the RP, mostly because I suck at making backstories and RPing makes it so much fun.

Do you feel comfortable playing an all-out "evil" character, or working closely with someone who does?

Oh yeah, I'm totally comfortable with it. I'm not afraid to admit that deep inside me there is a sick and twisted monster waiting to be let out. Since I would never let it out in real life, why not have some fun with my inner demon and make an evil RP character? I also have RP'd with some of the sickest characters out there, some of the things that happened were cringe inducing. But it was fun, made for a great RP and even greater character development, which to me is what it's all about.

That being said, I don't think I have every RP'd an actual 'evil' character.. I have had many crazy characters, some not all that justified, but none I think that were truely evil by other peoples standards.

If you do enjoy playing an "evil" character, why?

I just think it's fun to open up and pretend to be someone totally opposite of what I am in real life.


And what do you do when you feel uncomfortable with a situation that crops up in a RP?

I'm generally never uncomfortable with RP situations. I'm a very open and tolerant person. I have RP'd sex scenes, murders, torture scenes, you name it, but I have also RP'd good things as well. It's all about the character development. If my character wouldn't agree, I have them speak out, but there is almost nothing that I would flat out say no to RPing.

The only time I was uncomfortable was during a new RP on the Wowhead forums a few months ago. My slutty troll and a friend slutty blood elf were hooking up, no strings attached, for some fun. Thats how both the characters are. The only problem was that it was still fairly early in the RP (probably 7ish pages I think) and we had a lot of newbies that had just joined in as well. I didn't want to scare them off the RP boards with a bunch of sex posts (even if they would have been fairly vague, nothing explicit) this early in the RP, so I asked my friend on the side if we could make one or two 'starting' posts then do a time skip so we didn't make anyone else uncomfortable, and he was fine with that.

If it had been in our original RP, I would have had no issues with it because we were a close knit group of people who were all comfortable with it.

Anyways, sorry for critting your eyes with my wall of text. I just love RP and character development so I guess I had a lot to say!

[Lupis]

*Copy-pastes over reply from Deviantart journal*

Hmm. I think at times I can relate, and at times I'm exactly what you would feel uncomfortable being around. I have a character in a very long, literary RP/story I'm writing with my friend who is just horrible to almost everyone. He has limited mental control powers (I hate OP characters. >.<) and uses them to give people terrible nightmares, make people doubt their allies, and do very Yogg'saron like things. The only "good" thing about him is his fondness for another of the characters, the only one he actually tolerates. I love writing in his perspective, but maybe not just because he's evil - I enjoy most his musings on the human mind and how it works. He thinks it's insane, and so do I.

Scarab is also a horrible person. But, most of that is just a will to be great and become a powerful leader. That's what he was created for. He had some humanity left, too, or at least until Hands was taken. Now he's pretty heartless, but before he had strong loyalty and devotion towards his army, if not towards the individual lives making it up.

Now, your questions...
Why do I Roleplay? Because it gives me a way to look into another world and another mind, with different experiences and influences. I love the interaction between characters and how they affect one another. I love the world they are in. Seeing how they change through their struggles. Seeing how my character can impact other characters. It's like playing a life that I can never really experience.

How do I create my character's personalities? I start with something simple, and underlying personality. Lightfur, one of my WoW characters, was somewhat arrogant, hasty and too confident in himself. He was also caring and intelligent. After a life changing experience, he changed his ways somewhat, humbled by his failure. (He got mauled by a dragon after killing its whelp. Lost his eyes.) I modeled his personality after that experience, changing it by what he learned.

Do I feel comfortable playing an all-out evil character? I don't think there can be such thing as a realistic all-out evil character, so no. All evil characters have some sort of motivation to be evil that might be understandable. Saying someone is simply "evil" doesn't make sense. Therefor, no, I wouldn't feel comfortable playing the character.
Would I feel comfortable RPing with one? Not really. Not unless I understood their motivation and reasons.

What do I do when I feel uncomfortable with a situation that comes up in RP? It depends. With something like ERP, I just leave, because it's not something I enjoy at all. Other annoying things I can usually deal with, or I can come up with an excuse to leave - or just point out something like "I don't understand why your character would do this". For instance, if someone is badly RPing a Dragon or a Demon Hunter, I can advise them to look up said class on Wowwiki to read about how they would really act.
For your situation, you might want to simply remove your character ICly from the group. She might realize that she doesn't belong with them.

[Moonlost]

I don't know why people seem to be embarassed over their walls of text. Being introspective over roleplaying = awesome, in a nerdy sorta way.
Really though, it's just awesome reading all these different perspectives on the issue, and I'm glad I brought it up. Gotta admit, reading this makes me want to gather all us up for some crazy D&D fun.

Loethlin: For the most part, I agree with you. Most people in a tabletop settting seem to play an evil character just to go "OooooooOOOOOOoooOOoo, I am eeEEEEEEeeeeeviiiilllllll!!!!" and wiggle their fingers in your face. But at the same time, I don't really like the idea of forcing people not to play something in a game where it's all about playing what you want to play. I guess this is one of those complex morality issues though (The fun of one person vs the fun of the group).
Not saying that people can't pull of an evil character. I think it's just harder to do so within the rules and playstyle presented with a tabletop experience. I think it's a little easier when doing the play-by-post RPs, such as the ones we have here. In those cases, I find I'm writing a character for a story as opposed to playing a character myself. I can distance myself from that character. Amazing how much switching from a first person perspective to a third person one can influence how comfortable I am with roleplaying a concept.
Then again, it all comes down as to what you percieve to be evil. Within the terms of player characters, I determine the good/evil axis as to be how selfish of a character you are. A good person will be more selfless, sacrificing their own needs for the needs of others. Evil is the opposite, sacrificing the needs of others to further your own desires. Neutral is a mix between. This is a personal viewpoint though.

[Sonata]

Gah I can't resist from answering such questions!
A bit from the background I have been well roleplaying for about...it's been years maybe over three years. But my roleplay is more of a on and off thing. I started out my RP in a virtual Harry Potter school, there it moved into writing into books, to chat forms and then D&D. Weird cycle ain't it. Prepare for wall of text-y doom.

Why do you roleplay?
Like everyone else, for the fun. I enjoy giving the characters I own a life and seeing them evolve from their original setting to something else. Also that I become someone else for a moment or be the brain of said character and make them do my bidding....that came out wrong.


How do you create your character's personality?
Gah not sure if I can answer this with a true answer. I tend to make my characters have something to remember them by.
They are never stuck on one adjective like being vain...they could be vain and goofy. I love creating mysterious characters also even if I don't use them much. I have a bad habbit of making my characters "weak" aka. lose in fights alot. Like for example Latarir my druid cannot argue with his wife for long. Name the weakness and I HAVE DONE IT.
This is a self-esteem problem on the players part so let's not include it, I just feel like I don't deserve to win or that I start to think I am a godmod even on powerful characters.

Do you feel comfortable playing an all-out "evil" character, or working closely with someone who does?
I think my characters can say I am the evil since I love to make them suffer. Killing off their sisters and making them enemies with their clans, get their family killed by a fellow family member then killing the one they bond to afterwards...MUAHAHAH *cough*

Sorta yes and no, I've only played two self made evil character otherwise I play official evil characters...and I loved it. I love it when my friends RP a evil character, they do such a better job at it...yet still I need to be the bad guy always or I used to be.


If you do enjoy playing an "evil" character, why?
Heck it's fun to be able to do stuff you normally can't and get away (most of the times) with it. Let's name one character and my most used evil character which is not used anymore since he was created for a RP with a friend. Dr. Kaoru the doctor from a random unnamed hospital, thus the friends who know him shiver.
On him I have roleplayed the most horrific scenes from trying to make characters murder themselves and things I am not allowed to tell here, believe me YOU DON'T want to know and he doesn't care for you one bit...you are just a puppy he kicked and he laughed at your face.
A sorta evil I have roleplayed would be Garrosh and a more evil would be the Lich King if it was me who played him then.

And what do you do when you feel uncomfortable with a situation that crops up in a RP
One of my friends has this BAD tendency of...trying to pair up characters. I was playing a (male) elf ranger and he was playing (female) a half-elf human cleric. The elfs in general in that setup hate halfbreeds, my elf was a bit more like that he doesn't hate them but he doesn't like them either. The only halfbreed he liked was a rogue he met because he could relate to him.

And that he doesn't realize if the character has a bit of sue-ish qualities too much. (I don't mind all sues since some sues are quite likable, but with him it's sue after sue)
Heres a tiny example: we went to a drow village...his character was all glee in there. To sum up the backstory of his character: she was raised in a orphanage and had a drow friend. Notice that ALL elfs in the setup hate halfbreeds drows hate them the most and wondered why my character was jumpy when his grandfather died in a elfwar to said elves and this war was known by everyone.

Said friend causes most of the uncomfortable stuff in the games for all of us players, the GM has considered kicking him out but he would throw such a tandrum which would have me in the crossfire.
Me and the GM are friends, he has used me to try and convince the GM to let homebrews in when we had discussed that there would be no homebrews in this campain and he does this because he thinks I have a greater influence in the game.

[Rawr]

This post has resparked my RP love and I want to try a new RP sever, anyone have a good RP sever suggestion? (Horde side only please).

[Makoes]

I to am feeling the urge to try an RP server...either side works for me

[Rawr]

Im on the Scryers atm, Im on Tempestborn, a Tauren druid born in the mitts of a mighty storm. Fierce and chaotic she is like a storm itself.

[Redith]

Heres my thing. When I create a character I roleplay that character. If the guy is ok with some evil deeds then hes ok. But if hes not then I act as my character should act. Heres an example

I was playing with a new group and I allways ask "Is there anything I should know about your play style?" This usually is resulted as no we are just basic. Or 2 we play evil campains or something like that.
So i created a Palidin, now unlike wow palidans DnD palidans CANNOT stand evil whatever. So we are doing our little "What does your guy do?" Dance that most new groups do when they first have an adventure (That is unless the DM says you guys have been traveling for a while yadayada) So my guy is in town and another Player has a guy he is playing evil (Not sure what he was thinking cause he KNEW I was playing a pali) anyway but he tries to mollest a bar girl in the tavern that my guy is. Well I do my job and I try to arrest him. He then tries to kill me. Rogue vrs Pali round one. 30 seconds later his guy is dead and his player is pissed at me.
( I cant stand people that cant understand ROLE PLAY IS NOT PERSONELL!!!)

so whe it comes to the how do you handle thing heres my answer. What would you character do? Who cares if it offends the other guys cause its an effen game. Death is just an excuse to create a new character.

Can I play evil Characters?
Yes and I do...yet I am a good guy inside so yha their are some things I just wont do. You said you played dragon age? You know the city elf story where you get offered gold to let the girls get raped? I allmost did that with my evil elf......Until I this part of the story happened.

Bad Guy-Take the gold and leave town
My guy-Ok give me the gold
poor beaten elf girl-"I want to go home"
My guy-(thinks-Stay evil remember your a bad guy) Wait what about the women?
Bad guy-The girls will stay here, they will go home in the morning..a little worse for wear.
My guy-........Bad guy or not I am SOOO Fucking you up!

Yhaaa...some things I just cant do even in a game

[Saturo]

Why do you roleplay?
I do it for fun, and because I like writing. I see it as just another way to practice English.
How do you create your character's personality?
Usually? I tend to base the character either on my self, as with the death knight Decay, or I play the character for a while, thinking out ma backstory, and then a fitting personality for the character.
Do you feel comfortable playing an all-out "evil" character, or working closely with someone who does?
Definitely. In the forum RP, Tales of the Hunt, I play ONLY "evil" characters. There's Saturo, the gnomish warlock, who is all out evil. She doesn't want much but to see the world burn to ashes because of her spells. I also have Stereoptic, while not as evil as Saturo, she probably wouldn't care too much if the one she gets hired to kill is the only one standing in the way of destroying the world. There's also Decay, who is probably the least evil of the three. She wouldn't oppose to causing somebody she dislikes immense pain, even if she would try to avoid it against somebody she likes. She's probably my most fleshed out character as well, I have a pretty solid backstory, and I've played her in-game (in three incarnations) enough to have a REALLY solid personality, but ultimately, what Decay does depends on what I would do.
If you do enjoy playing an "evil" character, why?
I dunno', really. I just think it's interesting, seeing the side of the story that movies never tell, and such.
And what do you do when you feel uncomfortable with a situation that crops up in a RP?
Either my character voices a dislike, or I oppose it OOC.

[Raydex-of-the-dawn]

Why do you roleplay?
I'm a writer. Actually working on completing a story right now, it's called Felsong. I roleplay for practice, and also for fun, and also to stay in touch with my best friend who I happen to have a crush on. XD I've certainly gotten better...though there have been bad characters on the way. *snugs Nyaroca* She might not have been a good character but I still love my mage/chimera/wolf/hydra/dragon/spirit goddess. Heck, she wasn't even the worst in that roleplay! (we were both pretty bad. It was basically a roleplay where EVERYONE WAS A SUE)

How do you create your character's personality?
Usually they just happen. Oftentimes, they're manifestations of the voices in my head (of which there are many, but the most prominent of whom are Sserakosia, Skettis, Ruin, Rayd, and her family). Other times they develop as I roleplay.

Do you feel comfortable playing an all-out "evil" character, or working closely with someone who does?
Yes.

If you do enjoy playing an "evil" character, why?
Array was evil for some time - the way she treated her best friend is evidence of that. She really developed as a character; the roleplay spanned about 5 months and was around 5000 posts between the two of us. I was comfortable playing her because she wasn't me, she was her - I was simply transcribing her ventures.

And what do you do when you feel uncomfortable with a situation that crops up in a RP?
The only real example of this was Keira's relationship with Array (which was uncomfortable for me because I was coming to terms with the fact that I liked the person who roleplayed Keira IRL). In that case, Array simply pushed Keira away, it wasn't unusual considering her nature.

[Gumballs]

And what do you do when you feel uncomfortable with a situation that crops up in a RP
One of my friends has this BAD tendency of...trying to pair up characters. I was playing a (male) elf ranger and he was playing (female) a half-elf human cleric. The elfs in general in that setup hate halfbreeds, my elf was a bit more like that he doesn't hate them but he doesn't like them either. The only halfbreed he liked was a rogue he met because he could relate to him.

Ooh I think I have something to add to this, because things like this annoy me too. They don't make me uncomfortable, just very annoyed. On the Wowhead Lore and RP forums I was for a very long time the only female RPer. Usually that wasn't an issue, I made friends with lots of people on there and they were all around my age and were very nice. But I talked to one guy, and he was around 13 I think.. and you could tell. He was ALWAYS trying to IC hook up with other peoples characters, or bugging me OCC to let ours hook up, no matter what the sexual orientation of the character was and regardless to the situation.

For example in the RP Azeroth 20 Years Later (which is set 20 years after the Shattering), I had many characters. One was my slutty troll (which I mentioned earlier), though she was older now and not so slutty anymore! She ended up pairing with a friends troll and having twins over the course of the RP, which was about 1 year OOC time and 3.5ish years IC time. She ended up being captured by a batshit crazy elf along with her sister to lure her sisters mate in to be murdered and ended up being tortured while she was still pregnant. Fortunately my friend was understanding that I didn't want anything to happen to her unborn children, so he focused on Praey's sisters infant, Kuno, who was rapidly aged like the way orcs used to it it. Fun stuff!

Anyways. So Praey was tortured a little bit and blaimed Wrex, who was a retired warlord. The ended up breaking it off after she had the children just because of the fear that she (or the kids) would be harmed to get to him, and she took them with her to Shatterspear Village where pretty much everyone else was... including this 13 year olds character. Then, dragons attacked and there was a large earthquake.. Len'zi was killed and Zane was injured. So here's Praey, a scarred mother who just lost her mate (at this point she convinced herself he was dead because he never went after her... in reality the guy had quit the RP) and one of her children, along with having lots of other drama her in life at that moment in time.

And here's this 13 year old, bugging me both IC and OOC to let Praey hook up with his troll. Like, are you crazy?! She just lost her child and her mate (who she still loved)... she is in no way emotionally ready for a relationship. And this guy would NOT let it go, no matter how many times I said NO or how many times I asked him to stop. I was trying to RP a tragic, serious event for the next little while, and this guy just kept pestering me because he wanted our characters to have a sex scene... it was very very annoying.

I ended up deleting him off msn to prevent all OOC talk from him (aside in the Q&A thread, which I ignored all comments relating to it) and also ignoring him for the most part IC. My characters responded, but as if they were pissed off at him.. one word answers and then ignoring him for the most part.

It's sad to have to do this, especially when he was an otherwise good RPer. But I just couldn't take it anymore. Asking 'hey, do you think our characters could hook up in the future?' is one thing. Constant bugging when I've clearly started NO both IC and OOC is on another level..

NInja Edit:

I was comfortable playing her because she wasn't me, she was her - I was simply transcribing her ventures.

I think this is the perfect way to sum up my feelings towards RPing characters who have vastly different traits then myself.

[Schatzy]

I don't roleplay as much as other people do for games like Dungeons and Dragons as I mostly like the character creation and development on the mechanics and combat front. However, a game like D&D just wouldn't be quite as good without roleplaying, so I do partake once in a while or when it would make an interesting situation.

As for the evil character question, I haven't actually gotten the chance to make an evil character, so I don't have any personal experience on that front, but I think that once in a while I would enjoy developing a character that I would very much like for my other characters to kill.

However, although I'm not sure if anyone has brought it up yet since I didn't read through all the responses here, I think you should bring up your discomfort with their characters with the DM if you haven't already. If someone's not having fun with the campaign, something should probably be changed.