When you play an RPG, how far removed from your character do you feel? Can you identify with them at all, or is the distance between the two of you too great?

Some players prefer that clear boundary and don’t want to identify with the characters at all, and others, like myself, prefer to put themselves in the shoes and mindset of the character as much as possible.

However, how close can we get to inhabiting a character whose personality, mindset, and beliefs lie on the opposite end of the spectrum from our own?

As I said earlier in this series, our friend Scott AKA Disemvowel maintains that there’s always some of you in your character, and I don’t think he’s wrong. How much of you make it in is up for debate.

I like to play characters that are quite distant from who I am as an individual, but I always notice that something, some part of me, creeps in there.

I’ve noticed this with my friends as well. It’s not just their tone of voice or how they tend to role play. There is always something about their characters that feels very much like them, and I find that fascinating.

Perhaps we’re not as far off as we thought.