How to avoid role playing an insane PC?

Kadayko · February 23, 2017

I find that many times my character acts completely differently in all situations just because of the exp and rewards for doing different things, and often the optimal rewards require approaches that are radically different.

I get a nice artifact and exp by helping a nice old lady? Cool. I also get a nice stat bonus if I let a ghoul eat a little girl? Nice.

And then I end up with this insane character with completely unpredictable behavior.

I noticed that very often I don't even need meta-game knowledge to make these choices, as the game gives me pretty massive hints about the outcomes of my actions, and rewards are often too good to stick to performing only certain kinds of actions.

Anyone else had this problem?

Any ideas on how to fix this?

Edited February 23, 2017 by Kadayko

Blarghagh · February 23, 2017

Well, one of the things you can do is ignore the xp or rewards. I've forgone rewards in many games because I didn't like what I had to do for them. You could turn on the dispositions showing in conversations and consistently pick, for example, the benevolent options if you're a benevolent character. I believe that also has an impact if you're a Paladin or a Priest, if you're looking for gameplay implications in roleplaying.

Mikeymoonshine · February 23, 2017

I don't really see how this is a problem. The game rewards you for doing some "good" things and some "bad" things. The point of roleplaying is to do the things you think your character would do, and not do the things you don't think the character would do. If you are making certain choices just to get rewarded then that is not going to be the best roleplaying experience, unless you can find some way to justify why your character would make those choices.

Like pillars didn't treat morality as a black and white thing anyway, different factions and npcs had different ideas about what the "right thing to do" was.

Edited February 23, 2017 by Mikeymoonshine

Blarghagh · February 23, 2017

Yeah, one of Pillars' strengths IMO was that half the time I couldn't decide what the best course of action was.

Kadayko · February 23, 2017

Well, one of the things you can do is ignore the xp or rewards. I

The point of roleplaying is to do the things you think your character would do, and not do the things you don't think the character would do. I

I feel like if I do this I will be severely under-leveled and poor. I wouldn't start about 75% of the quests offered on my first playthrough. lol

pi2repsion · February 23, 2017

First, OP, I understand you completely. I am you in this respect, or rather, I was so 30 years back. Even 20 years ago I was so at times. Because mathematics and mechanical optimization is easy and I always fall back on it when I don't think about what I'm doing.

The obvious way to fix this is to start role playing, which I admit is a rather radical approach to take in a game belonging to a category that while known as roleplaying games is to a large degree populated by players who prefer optimizing stats to role playing, which is why the wise designer caters to both tastes, but it is an option.

This isn't as easy as it might sound, but it can be an immensely rewarding experience to feel that you are acting as the person would and reaping the consequences for good and ill thereof.

At the very start of the game, don't make a bunch of stats: Make a person. Invent some sort of background story if you feel like it, or imagine some common dilemmas and how this new person you are going to play would react to them.

He is obviously going to be fine with the mass murder/killing or people, animals, other threats, and anything that even looks like it might be a treat on a regular basis because they happen to be in the way and have a red circle, which is either insane or a survival trait depending on how you look at it, but apart from that? Is there anything he will not do? Is there anything he will definitely do? Does he like being questioned? How does he react to adversity? Does he always try to get in the last word? Does he form friendships or are relationships more utilitarian? Is he in it for the money? For love? For religion? Does he go along to get along? What are his ethics - or lack of same? And so on and so forth. And try, for the love of God, to go beyond mere caricature and archetype.

Always remember that few people are consistently one way or the other towards everybody - situations and context matter. A few paragraphs should be enough to sketch a person with enough personality to guide your way through a game, you can always add to it as the situation demands.

If you need help you can always choose either yourself or somebody else you know well as a template, asking "how would X react to this situation?" when faced with a situation. I don't recommend this in general, but if you are having trouble role playing it might help break you into the mode.

And yes... make up a bunch of stats that fit your vision of the main character.

Role playing: You should try it. It makes for a very different game and not, I am pleased to say with these three decades of CRPG roleplaying behind me, one that is less tactically interesting or providing less complexity for optimization; you just exchange the optimization of action to get reward with the optimization of reward based on action.