Topic: Players who attach themselves emotionally to their character

[DavidKlecker]

A point brought up from another thread. The idea here is not that a player is attached in a way that he plays the character 100% and brings a sense of realism and depth to the character. That's a good thing. I'm talking about a player who literally puts his blood, sweat and tears into a character and when it dies or loses something vital, they go into a fit of rage, depression, anxiety or all of the above. I know of three players that exhibit these traits, two of which exhibit them beyond the extremes and another one who will "sometimes" exhibit them. Nothing sucks the life out of the game when a player goes ballistic because another players infringes on their territory, or does something stupid, or simply is getting all the bad luck.

It's gotten so bad with a few of the players in that I'm glad when they don't show up.

[Right Wing Wacko]

Heh...
I have actually experienced the opposite.
Some of my previous players didn't care a wit about their PC's, and did foolish/brave things with no regard, and simply shrugged with a wry smile when their PC's went down.

My current group is not like that however.
They care enough, but don't take it too seriously, and never react like children... well, most of the time!

[Marc R]

True, I find the "I'm expendable, I charge" defect comes into play fairly often. . .anyone who says "Full OB" every attack in every combat in RM is a really heinous killing machine. . .when they win initiative or the other guy rolls crap on attack. . . some people will go through a slew of characters without ever parrying, not because they don't get it, but because defense is boring to them. They don't mind dying once every other session if in exchange they cut a bloody swath before they go down.

[yammahoper]

and then there is a the GM who is emotionally attached to his world and the idea how it should play out (for me this WOULD be in HERO/Champions, were I prefer a mix of four color and grit but PC's should be MOSTLY four color).

Had a troll PC once in shadow run.  Was cursed to die in six months.  he was a fatalist and only wanted to find his sister before he died and save her (she disapeared the night he was cursed).

Ole Trent snapped the neck of an outlaw bicker who would not tell him were the money was hidden.  GM blew UP!  I was kicked out and it was an ugly night.  Turns out in one of the private meetings a party menber had lifted the cred sticks and hid them.  Course, no one told the troll, and he needed 50k quick to get into the indian lands...stuff happens.

[naphta23]

Had two players like this before.

In case A, the player did not have a hobby named RPG. As a matter of fact, RPG was his raison d'être. He did not give a rat's behind for anything, as long as he could play one of his glourious and overpowered characters. Since he devoted his life for all his characters and for RPG, he was unemployed and was not the least interested in having a job or living a regular life.
It took us some time to realize that he was a walking bag of lies and stole from his friends - in this case, our money and property.

Case B was pretty easygoing in relation to the first example. It was a gamer who reacted like Monk described, and he spoiled many evenings by reacting emotionally to stuff he found unfair. Mind you, it was unfair, if his character lost some gear, for example, but it was funny as heck if another player's character lost something. Fortunately, this player left us after a while, because he was convinced the gamemaster was always picking on him.

The lesson I learned is to avoid players that care way too much for their characters. Perhaps they are not as bad as the first example, but they are definitely problematic. And since our time on planet earth is extremely finite, I guess we should avoid timewasters (in this case people whose presence and participation make our hobby unpleasant, so the time spent is wasted) and partypoopers.
If I was desperately in need of a gaming group, I would accept some minor emotional abuse, but I would not have my free time spoiled - or recommend it.

[GrumpyOldFart]

I'm not going to say anything against "getting emotionally attached", because the players who are emotionally attached to their characters tend to play them as much more consistent and much less expendable than those who are not so attached.

That said, it doesn't take an off the scale In stat to realize that your character is words and numbers on a sheet of paper, and an idea in your head. In short, it is by definition temporary. If you can't stand for your character to be thwarted, hurt or killed, I can only say that I hope you never have to say a final farewell to your dog or cat, and never have to deal with giving away or selling an artwork that you created.

Oh, and you badly, badly need to get into a Paranoia game, for the education.

 

[DavidKlecker]

and then there is a the GM who is emotionally attached to his world and the idea how it should play out (for me this WOULD be in HERO/Champions, were I prefer a mix of four color and grit but PC's should be MOSTLY four color).

Had a troll PC once in shadow run.  Was cursed to die in six months.  he was a fatalist and only wanted to find his sister before he died and save her (she disapeared the night he was cursed).

Ole Trent snapped the neck of an outlaw bicker who would not tell him were the money was hidden.  GM blew UP!  I was kicked out and it was an ugly night.  Turns out in one of the private meetings a party menber had lifted the cred sticks and hid them.  Course, no one told the troll, and he needed 50k quick to get into the indian lands...stuff happens.

I would have laughed and went, awesome but something tells me you did something he didn't want. I've seen this happen once and I will admit I blew my top once during a game as GM but that was because all the players started getting into a huge argument during a mutiny and one of them started yelling across the table right next to my ear. I got so hotheaded I slammed the table and told people to the shut the **** up! That ended the game.