Do you like to mess with your character's lives?

I, personally, am a gigantic fan of screwing up my character's lives. I really enjoy sticking them in the middle of chaotic situations where they become a political pawn or someone else's tool without realizing that's what's happening to them. How do you guys feel about it?

 

That my friend is simply good writing. In order to put the 'reader' on the edge of their seat we need an antagonist that is a true threat to our 'hero' or 'anti-hero'. It's a fine line though... keeping a character in constant turmoil can disrupt the suspension of disbelief as sure as any winning streak. Every site always seems to have it's 'fat-chewers'... you know, two or more characters hanging out and just shooting the shit. No description of the setting, no antagonists, just two characters sitting around (you have assume they're sitting since it's never been established) talking about nothing that is at all pertinent to the site, which isn't even the semblance of a story. It's like two or more people under the guise of false persona's hanging out in a chat room taking about the latest release of Bloodsword IX or something as trivial. I don't get that... never have. I love it when a writer sets up a story with lots of turmoil and entwines their character in it. If it's done right, it evolves into a series of stories/episodes, which to me is the whole point, developing a web of stories that several characters on the site can get caught up in, link them up, bind them together.

 

Yes, I do. Just now my pirate captain is about to be nearly killed in a fight.

 

Naturally! Like Atticus, I don't much enjoy static roleplay with no stakes. Even if I have a character that doesn't fight (which I do), I still rapidly lose interest if there's not some risk to their way of life or something beyond their control.

My "main" character - a fighter - was built from the ground up to be living a life of always looking over her shoulder, being paranoid that the next person she meets is going to be loyal to the people she's running from (or is going to see the monetary/political value in alerting people to her presence). I've always been very open to the idea of these things actually catching up with her, too, though I've had no takers as of yet. Still, it has very much shaped the course of her life in the past thousand or so posts.

On the other hand, I have a completely pacifistic character who spends most of her time in her shop, conning people out of their money by telling hokey fortunes. That could be boring if it weren't for the fact that she is usually lying out of her ass, giving bad advice, and generally making wild guesses that could easily expose her for the fraud she is. She also gets to have far-reaching impacts on others' lives; for instance, she just finished telling a young man that his dead mother was in fact alive in a dangerous city, and it looks like he's planning to go there, now. Whoops. Who knows how this might come back to bite her?

 

Absolutely, why should everything be peaceful?

 

It's a terrific way to vent after a day full of bs, put my characters in something equally frustrating as they can say what they really think freely :)

 

Without a doubt! IC drama is the juice and excitement of my threads :) I really do poorly with stagnant plots and "meet and greets", so I try and really throw everything and the kitchen sink at my charries to develop them. And entertain me.

 

If nothing ever happened, it would be boring!

 

I sadly do

 

Its not fun if I am NOT doing that? I literally think, "How can I ruin Seth's life today?"

 

I quite enjoy ruining their lives from time to time. I don't like everything to "go as planned" or to be peaceful for them. I feel that they need angst, drama, and tragedy to grow.

 

I'm such an angsty drama fan. I always end up ruining their lives in some way or another.

 

There's a fine line behind stirring shit for the character just because, and dropping challenging situations on them to encourage character development.

I've seen people do the former to their characters, and end up alienating everyone else in the game because they didn't actually think about the consequences of what they were doing and what they'd set their character up for.

I truly believe nearly any situation that your characters come out of alive can be worked through eventually, but some people don't seem to actually consider the reactions of other characters and players, and don't bother to actually discuss what they were trying for either preemptively or after the fact when things blow up in their face.

But, yeah, if things go too smooth, it's really no fun.

 

I like to have a little intrigue and danger for my character, but without jeopardizing the game as a whole

 

It is kind of fun. It's nice going through the emotions and they can't be happy all the time. Life's not life without conflict. Though there is a difference between pure torture and for the story. I'm more of a for the story kind of person.

 

I have a few characters that I have made their lives a little more difficult than others. I think it adds to the overall story and the depth of the characters.

 

Oh my gosh, YES. I am a cruel god. What is that saying? "Kill your darlings." Well, even if I don't outright kill off one of my own characters (for shock factor, it's fun to blow the minds of other players sometimes), I do love putting my characters through the ringer-that's for sure. I really appreciate it when other players are the same. Characters that are always victorious are too perfect to me, and that is super immersion breaking. I want to see grit and flaws.

 

I love getting my characters into trouble lol sometimes it doesn't end well for them... one of them ended up losing an ear because they kept talking back and claiming their interrogation specialist was too soft to do anything to them (not realizing the person was very serious) and uhh... they did the thing lol XD

 

For me it honestly depends, long as it develops their character, I am all for it!

 

Generally, I love to put my characters into situations in which they might brush up against their weaknesses. I also find it really important to make sure that characters (both mine and those I GM) face consequences for their actions. If they start a gunfight, odds are they aren't going to escape unscathed.