Is not being able to RP with your characters wierd?

I've had it suggested to me many times that I RP with my characters (which I did do at a younger age, several years ago, with a prototype of one of them).

However, every time I've tried, it just feels...off. Not like I don't know what to do with the characters, because I can think of a bunch of possibility threads, but like I shouldn't be putting them on the marionette strings, if that makes any sense.

I've developed my main three to the point where they're each seperate entities from each other and myself, and they each have a tailored, complicated niche in the setting. I don't feel like I can just pluck them out of the various internal worlds that they fit (for example, I could easily place them in an entirely modern setting, with some changes) easily and plop them elsewhere for a while. I'd have to figure out exactly where they fit in that RP's world to be comfortable with it. I guess my mindset is too much in my own work, which...makes me sound and feel horribly self-absorbed. I just have a hard time imagining them actually meshing with other worlds, in spite of all my crack crossover ideas (that I don't share).

I feel kind of like this is a dumb question...

I'm just not sure, I suppose, if this feeling is normal or not. Is it? Erm, sorry for asking a stupid question... /_ _\ (<- bow emoticon)

edited 21st Sep '11 4:54:43 AM by punkreader

Nope. I don't do it with my characters. (I do how put envisioning as if I temporarily substituted myself for a "What would he/she do?" situation to see how it works at the not-distant level.)

Then again also, some characters aren't RP friendly for RP scenarios seen online like the CDT's.

No. I understand. I have the same problem.

I can't RP my characters because they tend to come with plots, and their character changes over the course of their plot. That raises two problems.

A)I would need to choose a point in their plot for the character to enter the RP.

B)Events in the RP would have to be "noncanon" because they might interfere with their plot.

My characters come with plots, as well.

Characters that you use in RPs generally fill the role of viewpoint character, and as we're found within the CDTs, some characters simply make for poor viewpoints. They might not have a very nice narrative voice, pay attention to things, or care enough about anything to provide a substantial lens.

Regarding canon, I prefer to view RPs and CDTs more as practice rings where I get the hang of a character rather than development tools. Stuff will affect characters in ways that are not in the original work; that is a given.

Actually, I've designed my setting and characters for an RPG. That seems to be the way I think. I have trouble cramming them into one story when there are so many possibilities. So watch for Under World: The RPG after the book hits the best-seller list.

What P Down said. The story is the character's natural habitat, and many feel odd and out of place in any other setting.

Especially when a character's traits are more subtle.

Exactly. Most of your Character Development comes from the plot and setting. The Arthur Dent wouldn't be too memorable without aliens and Infinite Improbability Drives to weird him out, and Sherlock Holmes just seems kind of off when he's not solving mysteries in London Town. This is especially true when you're writing a more realistic character (and 10x as true if he's a Non-Action Guy or one in a Fish out of Water plot).

Not to mention RPing with characters from your stores is basically writing crossover Fan Fic for yourself. Which is kinda weird when you think about it.

Personally, I never RP, actually. I haven't done it since my early teens.

Personally, I see it as far too much time and effort to put into something that will be forgotten once the RP advances beyond the forum page your post is on - I'd rather spend my writing time working on the actual story.

edited 21st Sep '11 1:57:03 PM by Wheezy

I can RP with my characters, but it isn't necessarily all that useful except perhaps to work on the "voice" of a character I don't know that well yet.

I can see it being difficult to RP with characters who are very stylised and one dimensional. I'd imagine RPing more developed characters ought to be possible in any setting, although most characters would presumably react with surprise and confusion when transferred to any setting that they'd have no reason to visit of their own volition.

P Down's post is very true, however. I just don't really understand why that should prevent you from RPing with the characters. Just pick a point in the story to extract them from, and make the RP non-canon.

edited 21st Sep '11 2:39:54 PM by BobbyG

I agree with this and with the comments made by Wheezy. I am participating in the Character Development Threads to practice writing my characters' "voice" in a setting where I don't have to divorce them from my own works. For a generic RP thread with its own setting, though, I would have to use original characters created for that RP.

edited 21st Sep '11 4:57:49 PM by nrjxll

I use the CDT threads for figuring out my characters too (although only Beach and Cantina II had characters I was planning to use recently), along with seeing other characters in action.

RP characters tend to develop differently than my regular characters. For example, the former tend have a quirk (Alexia's Sweet Tooth). They also have a set of well-defined traits that shift over time as I figure out how the character works. In general, I decided to keep one character (Alexia), one I'm planning for future use, and one I unintentionally made an Expy of (Sayu to Kevin, due to both of their energetic tendencies, their naiveness, and their determination to open a character up).