Seeking the Community's thoughts on playing characters that you didn't create.

[Drew]

Please tell me your opinions on the following...

1. Some games include pre-made characters for you to use. There's room to write any fluff you want about them but their crunch is all already decided. Still, you can roleplay them any way you like because they were made up just for this game.

2. What about a pre-made character who is an already well-known fictional character from other media? And now there is pressure to roleplay that character in line with how they would actually behave.

3. And, finally, what about an already well-known character who is known for being a silent protagonist? Now you don't even have the ability to speak. Is it still possible to enjoy the roleplaying at this point?

[RaistlinMC]

So, when I read the title here, Drew, I didn't think of numbers two and three that you posted there; those I've never done. But I have done both number one and, more commonly in PbP, I've picked up a PC another person created and then dropped. I'm playing a ranger in a Curse of Strahd campaign here - and have been for years now - that I didn't create; I just picked him up and ran with him when another player dropped out. The same's true for my drow monk in a Tyranny of Dragons campaign here.

That, in my experience, is the most common way I've played a PC I didn't create...and honestly? I love it. Both of those PCs have become special to me over the years and, until this post, I mostly forgot I wasn't the one who created them.

[Drew]

Are you playing those characters that you took over the same way that their original player played them? Or did those characters kind of change over time to become your own?

[RaistlinMC]

They've evolved over time but I started playing them as the original players did. I read a chapter or two back in the story when I picked up those PCs, going over plot points and interactions I personally wasn't around for, so that I'd better understand the character and the story. I began with them in the style of the original players but now, literally years later, they very much feel like "mine" even though they didn't begin that way.

[Tiger]

I am willing to play chars that I didn't create as long as they are mechanically sound and I can play them any way I want. So as long as I get free reign over their personality I'm fine with it.

[Drew]

Let's field some hypotheticals, then. In these example games set in already established worlds, some people get to make their own characters and some people get assigned existing characters. The how and the why are irrelevant at this time. Give me your thoughts and feelings about these scenarios.

#1 - The game is set in the Forgotten Realms and you will be playing Drizzt.

#2 - Same setting. You will be playing Minsc.

#3 - The game is set in the world of Resident Evil. You will be playing Leon S. Kennedy, circa 1998.

#4 - The game is set in the world of Metal Gear Solid. You will be playing Solid Snake.

#5 - The game is set in the world of Mario. You will be playing Mario. You can talk, but only in vaguely Italian-sounding gibberish.

#6 - The game is set in the world of Pokemon. You will be playing the Pokemon Trainer Red. You are silent. You don't ever speak.

[Tiger]

Some of these I don't know but I get the impression that all of these are solidly established characters with firmly established personalities which would mean no freedom whatsoever in how I would be able to portray them.
So I wouldn't.

If you would have said: "Drezen, a lvl 7 elf warlock in the Forgotten Realms with a bunny familiar and a compulsion for cleanliness." Then I would be fine with that. Because it gives me huge freedom to color in the character itself.

[RaistlinMC]

I'm mostly with Tiger here...though I would be tempted to play Minsc, no doubt about it.

[Drew]

Yes. Remember, in these scenarios the common event is that you've shown up to play and the GM just hands you the character sheet and tells you that this is the character you'll be playing. You aren't given a say in the matter beforehand. The rest of the game group already appear to have their characters and are ready to start the game. You can't tell at this time how many of them got to make an original character and how many of them were also just handed a sheet of some established character like you were. How do you handle the situation?

[Tiger]

I would look over the sheet to make sure it's a competent build and after asking and being assured that there is no preset personality to this John Doe I'd say: "Cool. I'm ready."

[RaistlinMC]

Yeah, I don't mind a GM handing me a character sheet for who I'm playing. It's different, for sure, but like an actor being assigned a role, I don't find it troubling or offensive either.

But then again, I've also always been the guy who would rather play a healer to get into game than to hold fast to my rogue or wizard that I've rolled up and love only to not be chosen for the party and be left out in the cold.

[Drew]

Well, we're close to that minefield of a discussion where people try to tell you exactly where the line is between "role-playing" and "playing a role".

[RaistlinMC]

Time to call in the bomb squad then, I'd say.