Insane Characters

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SEXYCOCKROACHES
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Insane Characters

Post by SEXYCOCKROACHES » Wed Sep 13, 2017 3:08 pm

I'm not sure this is the right thread for this, but here goes.

I was thinking about making an insane PC in Arelith, but I feel like such a character can easily become stupid if not done well. If it's possible, does anyone have any examples of insane fictional characters that weren't overdone in the insane department I could take notes from? In addition, if you have any tips, that would be amazing as well.

I'm trying to find a way to make the character I'm making come across as insane, but not to the point it's cumbersome and overdone for others.

Any help would be great.
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Re: Insane Characters

Post by Cerk Evermoore » Wed Sep 13, 2017 3:21 pm

Best bet is to start a little insane and gradually increase it with character development.

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Re: Insane Characters

Post by DarkDreamer » Wed Sep 13, 2017 3:24 pm

Look up Cyric...thats a great ideal...

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Re: Insane Characters

Post by Tyrantos » Wed Sep 13, 2017 3:25 pm

The problem with playing an "Insane" charather is that it tends to either become very.. well. Annoying for all those others around them, or you become the rabbit-slippers type of insanity. The same problem also happens quite alot in VTM (Vampire: The masqurade) regarding clan Malkavian.

The best suggestion I can give you is to look up some diffrent types of mental illness, and read up on them to be able to find (and portray) them properly in charather.

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Re: Insane Characters

Post by Griefmaker » Wed Sep 13, 2017 3:27 pm

A fun character I had many, many years ago for a short time was a dwarven wizard with multiple personalities. I think he had 4 distinct ones, one the primary and dominant one and the other three secondary. Sometimes they would talk to one another or argue or whatever, but it was actually a lot more fun to have then interact in RP situations with their distinctive personalities and personal goals and so on and so forth.

I basically made four characters for the one, each with a different name, past, quirks, and actions. Note though, that the different personalities were all in my character's head, so I never used disguise (don't even think it was around at the time, now that I think on it), or anything like that. It helped nail down the idea that the dude was a raving lunatic.

One character was super shy and timid and the emotes and actions/reactions showed that each time he was on point. Another was incredibly aggressive, crass, and conniving. Another a disciplined scholarly sort with a strong penchant for righteousness. And the main was a scattered brained wizard whose experiments caused the multiple personalities.

All in all it was a great time. Heck, the conniving personality even convinced the shy one to help eliminate the scholarly sort...which they did, and that personality went away.

But while it was fun, it really was a lot of work, which is why he was a bit of a short-lived character. Trying to remember all that 4 characters did and keep it straight was a headache after a while. Fortunately, he was really well received by those I talked to about it, because the insanity was there, but it was not "cheesy insanity", as one put it.

Another thing others mentioned that they liked about it is that the insanity did not steal the show, meaning that it was prevalent in each situation, but as you put it, was not "cumbersome and overdone for others".

I think that insanity can work great, as long as it is not the star of the show, but more of a flavor of the character.

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Re: Insane Characters

Post by Iceborn » Wed Sep 13, 2017 3:33 pm

Insanity is a matter of taste, and everybody is going to feel that the 'correct' measure is different.
The best advice I can offer is to regulate it to your audience, as to prove interesting and not overly disrupting (even if that's the very intention of the character).

It also depends severely on what kind of mental illness you are aiming to portray, which is something you need to grasp OOCly to be able to play in game.
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Re: Insane Characters

Post by Baseili » Wed Sep 13, 2017 3:38 pm

In my experience, insane characters never work out. There are only so many times you can yell at people about gnomes in your teeth or how the rats are plotting against you before it gets old, not to mention the ultimately binary outcome of said character; cured or locked up/killed.

RP aside, actually playing with an insane character is extremely tedious and really quite annoying at times. The first 10 minutes can be amusing but afterwards the fun drops quicker than a lead weight with a previous engagement.

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Re: Insane Characters

Post by Opustus » Wed Sep 13, 2017 3:53 pm

I've played a few, one who was seeing spirits and talking to them and through them, another who had severe mental issues who was practically a version of my Alzheimer grandparent, and they both worked out for me. I don't think they ever were "serious characters" doing "serious RP", but during my many years of RP, I've never played a character that would have been kewl or fashionable or gotten into inner circles of important social groups. As long as the character interests you and keeps you engaged in a way you enjoy, go for it! Playing foil/support characters is very important, too.

Insanity =! stupid. IRL, people might be seen as insane only because they are radically out of the norm, deviant. A person who puts mustard in her salad is not only seen as "quirky", they are weird and shunned, others don't understand why she would put mustard in her salad, it must taste awful. For some reason, the person who puts mustard in the salad doesn't change her habit despite the peers' attempts to that effect, which might be seen as rude, why would she not conform?

You can create personalities that differ from what is expected and give that reasons. Your character can only seem insane whereas you know better and others may find out! Deviance has a way of breaking expectations and being reacted to differently as well, so it can be a rewarding experiment at the least.
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Re: Insane Characters

Post by cptcuddlepants » Wed Sep 13, 2017 3:57 pm

First off, it depends on what you think an "insane" character is like. People tend to have differing views on what sanity is.

Your character may think that he's perfectly sane, that everything he does is rational and logical and it's all of those other people who are the problem. Or she may have a vague idea that she's a little odd, and either embraces her oddness or tries her hardest to come off as normal.

Something else to keep in mind - show, don't tell.

If you want your character to come off as insane, show it through emotes, or through little hints in his description that things might not be entirely right up there. And, don't make "insane" your character's defining point. Make sure they have everything that a "sane" character would - goals, ambitions, vices, fears, etc. Make sure they have a reason for everything they do that goes beyond "because crazy".

As for what I think is a good example of an insane fictional character, try this guy (Not sure if spoiler warnings are necessary, considering the age of the series, but still... spoiler warnings for anyone who hasn't watched Fullmetal Alchemist :P ): http://fma.wikia.com/wiki/Shou_Tucker
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Re: Insane Characters

Post by msterswrdsmn » Wed Sep 13, 2017 3:57 pm

What kind of insane are you going for? Try to pin down a reason as to why they're insane. The "ha! Did you see that random shit I did? Crazy, huh?" gets tiresome really fast for everyone involved, including yourself.

Ex: The last super-high INT character I had was insane. Imagine; your a genius amoung geniuses. In your sleep, you can envision technologies so advanced they're literally hundreds or thousands of years ahead of your time. Complex formulas, ideas, or theories just waiting to be tested, created, and explored!
....
And yet, your surrounded by people with average/below average INT who can't understand a damn thing. Everyone around you is an idiot, and explaining anything to anyone is as painful as pulling teeth. Nothing you make will be fully understood or appreciated because people are just. too. dumb. You want to take things apart, to learn, and explore things on a scientific level.

Unfortunatly, people don't understand what you're going half the time and if you went as far as you wanted to with your scientific explorations, the idiot peasents would be lining up on your door with pitchforks and torches. Again. So, somehow, you need to surpress the overwhelming desire to advance technology and unravel the secrets of the world because some dirt-sucking inbred peasent calling himself a wizard thinks "your technology will unravel the weave". Every day, all day, for the rest of your damn life.

That was the general concept of insanity for one of my old characters. Another one was just loud, said what he want, and didn't care what people thought. Not really "insane" so much as not caring, but he came off as crazy, drunken lunatic at times.

PTSD, functional paranoia, substance abuse/dependancy (alcoholism), extreme insecurity, antisocial tendancies, (the psych definition, not "antisocial=not social") are all things that are (relatively) easy to portray without going WAAAY deep into the crazy realm.

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Re: Insane Characters

Post by Opustus » Wed Sep 13, 2017 4:05 pm

I think there may be a minor ethical contradiction with displaying stigmatized forms of conditions typed as mental illness. Of course you can be inspired by them, but playing an alcoholic as a violent bum, for example, can perpetuate a harmful misconception.
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Re: Insane Characters

Post by susitsu » Wed Sep 13, 2017 4:41 pm

Down with the naysayers, insane characters with a proper writer behind them are just as wonderful as any character. And also Iceborn ur weird, insanity is not about taste, it's about what kind of crazy they are.

Almost all of my characters are "a little crazy" because I enjoy having that aspect of roleplay to them, and it's a good way to give your characters flaws.

Something that your...less than average roleplayers may do, whom are likely the source of a bad taste left in the mouth of people posting here with a disapproving stance on crazy people are the ones who play a crazy character because they're crazy.

Make a good reason. Make it an effort to find out anything even. Let their enemies think "oh man that one is S C A R Y" while their real allies and friends seek to discover more about them. Don't let their gimmick just be "crazy," make it something that just brings an interesting twist to their conversations and perspectives all along the way to achieving their goals. And then make those goals either shockingly down to earth, or unreasonably grand and dramatic, and something people have to earn the right to know.

Incidentally, I'm playing in a faction headed by a splendidly done insane character right now, and everyone is clearly having a great time with it.
Opustus wrote:I think there may be a minor ethical contradiction with displaying stigmatized forms of conditions typed as mental illness. Of course you can be inspired by them, but playing an alcoholic as a violent bum, for example, can perpetuate a harmful misconception.
To be fair, that was basically my warlock Nyilan for the longest time, before and after he actually became "Nyilan."
Last edited by susitsu on Wed Sep 13, 2017 5:12 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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Re: Insane Characters

Post by Dalek Caan » Wed Sep 13, 2017 4:49 pm

Check out the movie Leon the professional. The antagonist is probably the sort of insane that could work well.

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Re: Insane Characters

Post by SEXYCOCKROACHES » Wed Sep 13, 2017 5:29 pm

msterswrdsmn wrote:What kind of insane are you going for? Try to pin down a reason as to why they're insane. The "ha! Did you see that random shit I did? Crazy, huh?" gets tiresome really fast for everyone involved, including yourself.
The kind of insanity I wanted to aim for originates from constant nightmares, and the idea that one is not fully in control. I plan to make the person semi-normal at first, but as these nightmares continue for reasons specific to a PC spoiler reason, they spiral downwards out of control.

I'm not planning to have an "evil insane man who wishes harm", or "WoAh I sAy WeIrD aNd WaCkY tHiNgS" kind of character, I want to have a character who is fairly normal, but cracks over time before they aren't quite sure what's real, or normal, and what's something they just perceive from these nightmares.

Also, thank you everyone for your suggestions, it's nice to see people trying to help out.
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Re: Insane Characters

Post by Commie » Wed Sep 13, 2017 5:38 pm

You could also research actual disorders and pick one, so you can be role-playing an actual thing instead of just "insane."

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Re: Insane Characters

Post by Seven Sons of Sin » Wed Sep 13, 2017 7:29 pm

SEXYCOCKROACHES wrote:
msterswrdsmn wrote:What kind of insane are you going for? Try to pin down a reason as to why they're insane. The "ha! Did you see that random shit I did? Crazy, huh?" gets tiresome really fast for everyone involved, including yourself.
The kind of insanity I wanted to aim for originates from constant nightmares, and the idea that one is not fully in control. I plan to make the person semi-normal at first, but as these nightmares continue for reasons specific to a PC spoiler reason, they spiral downwards out of control.

I'm not planning to have an "evil insane man who wishes harm", or "WoAh I sAy WeIrD aNd WaCkY tHiNgS" kind of character, I want to have a character who is fairly normal, but cracks over time before they aren't quite sure what's real, or normal, and what's something they just perceive from these nightmares.

Also, thank you everyone for your suggestions, it's nice to see people trying to help out.
Sounds super Lovecraftian. Encourage you to read H. P. Lovecraft! There's a paradigm of his characters suffering from the horrors of the great unknown, leading to mental deterioration.

Moreover, I think another great idea for insanity is "doing something over and over again." That's a little Vaas from Far Cry 3, but I've always enjoyed it. (and this interpretation perhaps is most telling a lot of Arelithians)
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Re: Insane Characters

Post by Giftstoff » Wed Sep 13, 2017 7:32 pm

Play through Hellblade.

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Re: Insane Characters

Post by liver and bones » Wed Sep 13, 2017 7:41 pm

SEXYCOCKROACHES wrote:
msterswrdsmn wrote:What kind of insane are you going for? Try to pin down a reason as to why they're insane. The "ha! Did you see that random shit I did? Crazy, huh?" gets tiresome really fast for everyone involved, including yourself.
The kind of insanity I wanted to aim for originates from constant nightmares, and the idea that one is not fully in control. I plan to make the person semi-normal at first, but as these nightmares continue for reasons specific to a PC spoiler reason, they spiral downwards out of control.

I'm not planning to have an "evil insane man who wishes harm", or "WoAh I sAy WeIrD aNd WaCkY tHiNgS" kind of character, I want to have a character who is fairly normal, but cracks over time before they aren't quite sure what's real, or normal, and what's something they just perceive from these nightmares.

Also, thank you everyone for your suggestions, it's nice to see people trying to help out.
That sounds so much like an anxiety disorder that I can't seem to find atm. I would definitely say play a character with a string of anxiety issues/symptoms based on what you said you want.

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Re: Insane Characters

Post by Astral » Wed Sep 13, 2017 8:01 pm

Try to keep it ~A character. I mean functional character for the game limitations. If this character is unable to communicate and is completely unpredictable to the root, it's going to be more frustrating than fun to keep up.
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Re: Insane Characters

Post by Commie » Wed Sep 13, 2017 8:12 pm

One of the big things with those in mental health is a dire inability to care for oneself. Sometimes for a short term, sometimes longer.

But I work in the mental health field. I still don't know exactly what is expected when someone says "insane" character.

Are we talking about someone who always says what they think at all times with no buffer? Someone with short term memory loss that blames missing items on delusions? Or someone that thinks people want to steal their body piece by piece so anything that comes off of or out of their body they have to put back in?

It's a broad spectrum. What are your goals with the rp?

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Re: Insane Characters

Post by High Primate » Wed Sep 13, 2017 8:21 pm

I would adhere to a fictionalized rather than RL conception of insanity, but people who are insane IRL generally cannot function or amount to anything and find themselves dependent on others in order to survive.

Insanity is actually a legal concept. It means that the person's mental health issues are so severe that (a) they have no idea what is going on (b) and thus cannot be held responsible for their actions. Is (a) what you have in mind when you say you want to play an insane character? Or do you have in mind something more high-functioning?
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Re: Insane Characters

Post by msterswrdsmn » Wed Sep 13, 2017 8:35 pm

The kind of insanity I wanted to aim for originates from constant nightmares, and the idea that one is not fully in control. I plan to make the person semi-normal at first, but as these nightmares continue for reasons specific to a PC spoiler reason, they spiral downwards out of control.
Sounds like a gradually worsening anxiety disorder. Try fleshing out what he's freaking out about, and why its getting worse. And how "getting worse" manifests himself.

Is he having vague nightmares of being betrayed, so he grows gradually more withdrawn/erratic with time? Untreated PTSD that gets triggered by the constant violence on the island? Just actually a normal person whose freaking the hell out for how Arelith is a freaking death trap and is reacting like any normal sane person would? (ha, sane is the new insane)

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Re: Insane Characters

Post by High Primate » Wed Sep 13, 2017 8:49 pm

The kind of insanity I wanted to aim for originates from constant nightmares, and the idea that one is not fully in control. I plan to make the person semi-normal at first, but as these nightmares continue for reasons specific to a PC spoiler reason, they spiral downwards out of control.
This (at face value) doesn't even seem to describe insanity at all. Is the idea that the nightmares and feelings of loss of control get so bad that the character suffers a psychotic break of some kind?
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Re: Insane Characters

Post by Mr_Rieper » Thu Sep 14, 2017 12:46 am

That style of RP would either be downright awful or incredibly surreal. I'd recommend just a little bit, not too much. Things you never would have considered before will suddenly come to mind, and you'll get dozens of different angles on things most people would consider quite mundane.

On a more basic level, the best "insane" characters are the ones who seem to live in an altered reality, and see things through an altered perception. If your character can disrupt another character's grasp of reality and create a sense of doubt in their minds, you're doing fantastic. Don't forget to add a few stereotypes and flaws, so you don't completely alienate other players from your character and give them something to latch onto. People often believe that stereotypes are bad and that they make your character less unique, and therefore less interesting. This is not necessarily true.

Well thought out stereotypes and tropes for your character's personality and background can do a lot of good. They are not for you, they are for other players and characters. They are not for you. They are for others. Sometimes the paladin needs to act like a stereotypical paladin so the blackguard has something to oppose. Sometimes the thief needs to act like a stereotype, so the guard has something to chase. So if your character has a unique trait like being insane, try to balance it out with mundane or cultural things. Are they a demented ex-adventurer? Do they have a few wizardly tropes? People will never admit it, but they need something to latch onto, something that can hold conversations, provide context and give their characters something to relate to. If being insane is not their only character trait and they have a few familiar traits in there as well, you should be totally fine.

If they are the child of farmers, make them stereotypically ignorant of certain things. If they are from a certain culture, then have them possess common traits of that culture. It gives them depth and intrigues people, and if people are still not interested in those things? Then it still means you're less likely to annoy people.

Be very careful about portraying your character as temporarily ill. People WILL want to solve your character's problem, and will get frustrated when their attempts at fixing him/her do not work. Be subtle, don't shove the fact that your character has a problem in people's faces constantly, because this only encourages them to either fix the problem as soon as possible, or ignore you. Both will likely result in frustration and a bad taste in one's mouth.

Either way, go for it. See what happens.
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Re: Insane Characters

Post by Marsi » Thu Sep 14, 2017 2:09 am

Do insane things, pull off insane stunts. Don't just be insane. "Show, don't tell" as others have put it. Great "insane" characters are those who pull everyone around them into harebrained plots in the name of chaos.

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