Familiarity and Discomfort

I roleplay. I roleplay because I enjoy it, because it allows me to step into another's shoes, and because it's enjoyable. I roleplay online because it allows me to write and enjoy said writing.

My fiance says that I only play one type of character: the intellectual. That's not entirely true, but I'll give her this: it is my favorite type of character to play. I roleplay primarily on RPOL, RolePlay OnLine. Of my regular characters there, only three are not, in some way, shape or form, members of the intellectual elite.

And of those three, all three can arguably be considered intelligent, if not intellectual. Why? Simple. It's what I know. I don't have to play intellectuals; I choose to. Sometimes I like to stretch my wings and fly, but very often I can do that even while playing an intellectual. One of my characters -- an intellectual -- is also a street kid, down on his luck despite a bit too much good fortune to really be considered normal (such is the life of a mage, though, I guess). Through this, I have discovered just how difficult it is and can be to write from a perspective so utterly alien to me. I've never lived on the streets, can barely imagine what it's like. And yet, to play this character I have to figure out some way to do so. I think I do pretty decently, all things considered.

My three non-intellectuals are an archer, a troubadour and a communications officer. My troubadour is also a female, which can prove difficult, depending on the circumstances, while the communications officer is a rapid xenophobe. The archer stands out as being a fifteen-year-old with somewhat naive ideas about the way the world (doesn't) work, and he is currently in the process of falling into a state of infatuation at the moment.

Each of my characters has something vital that makes roleplaying that character difficult. The archer proves difficult because I haven't been naive in a fairly long time (at least, not about the things he is); the communications officer pushes me to be realistic in my xenophobia; the troubadour forces me to make a believable female. My street kid requires that I put myself in the shoes of a homeless person.

It's somewhat ironic that the two characters I find most difficult to play should be the two that are easiest. One is a hermetic magician, in college, with interests in philosophy and history. The other has lived my life in many ways. By being closer to me, they become more difficult for me to play.

I am a firm believer in playing a character you can identify with strongly. I also believe that the closer you get to yourself with a character, the more difficult it can be to play that character -- it forces you to look at your own flaws, identify them, and learn to overcome them.