#playing characters

[transmascpolls]

Transmascs: did you play male characters in games before coming out?

Yes, always

Yes, sometimes

Yes, but only after starting to question

No, only started playing male characters after coming out

No, don’t play male characters

No, don’t play games that require making characters / choosing gender

Unsure / can’t remember

Other answer

See results / not transmasc button

Voting ended onMar 23

[wearenotalone92]

The stupid things PCs do

I am very much into D&D lately, I am playing in a campaign in Ravenloft, and the various players have done a lot of stupid things lately. 

stupid things include (but are not limited to): 

destroying the city of a Vampire Lord

cast “cloud of daggers” on a stone golem

make a deal with another Vampire Lord (who incidentally wants to kill me and the paladin)

destroy a temple of an evil deity and robbing it of its treasures

I’ll probably post more of it, my group isn’t really good at planning

[brainyspeaks]

✔️✔️✔️✔️

((Thank you!!!!!!))

[wearenotalone92]

reblog with a description of the PC you loved most 

mine is Jiao Long, a dragonborn monk. his egg was stolen from his parents by slavers, and it hatched while travelling in the mountains of Tabot, Kara- Tur. they had it in mind to sell him as a gladiator, and they would sure make a pretty penny. 

to avoid detection, the slavers decided to pass through a little-known path, crossing the Valley of the Five Waterfalls... too bad that in the valley there was a monastery, and the monks weren’t at all happy to see a slaver caravan in the valley. so they attacked it, slaughtered the slavers and freed the prisoners: when they saw the newly hatched dragonborn, they exclaimed in surprise: “by the ancestors, he looks like a dragon!” and the name stuck (Jiao Long means “looks like a dragon” in chinese). No one had any clue about where Jiao came from, and so he stayed in the monastery. 

[ucbcomedy]

No matter what source you draw your inspiration from, don't allow yourself to slip into caricature. Real specifics will make any character choice seem real and your job easier because you won't have to struggle to fabricate these specifics. Portraying characters three-dimensionally and with integrity will help you avoid cheap or easy laughs. Don't make hacky, obvious or cheesy choices in your portrayal. Committing to the reality will increase your odds of being able to find and play a Game. Find the truth in your characters.

p. 161 of the UCB Comedy Improvisation Manual

[downrightupright]

The Matt Besser Interview: Part One

So there’s no reason to be a character unless it reflects your craziness somehow. However, don’t get a support character confused with a game character. Like, I was playing a little girl tonight, right? If I had come out speaking and had gone “Hey daddy!” and spoke in my normal voice, then that’s not good improv. Because I’m not committing to playing a little girl. So I have to take on the character of a little girl as best I can without being cartoonish. So I hope UCB teachers aren’t saying “Never play a character.” I think they’re saying, “Don’t play a character that comes out of nowhere.” SL: I think that is closer to it. MB: Well, that’s just bag of tricks basically. When people pull out characters that they’re just naturally good at. Like I pulled out a character tonight out of my bag of tricks when I was doing the warm up, because I was talking to people about being germans and I brought out my nazi voice. Which I do as my nazi pope. So it’s like, that’s definitely in my bag of tricks. That’s definitely something I feel comfortable [with] and I know I can get laughs at. If a scene started and I was just all of a sudden my nazi pope and it was apropos of nothing, to me, that’s cheating. And that’s not good improv. SL: And I would agree with that. So let’s see if I can distill this down: if you’re in a moment that calls for a character, then that’s what good improv is, you should leap to nazi pope. If you need nazi pope, then you’re nazi pope. But otherwise you’re playing yourself? MB: Let’s say [you initiate] “Hello doctor, can you just give me the straight news? Just tell me what I want.” And if I do anything besides a normal voice there? Then I’m being selfish. I’m introducing an unusual thing just apropos of nothing. I’m just bringing it out of nowhere. I should use a normal voice and go, “Yes, here’s the bad news. You have cancer.” or whatever. I have to go with his initiation. But if he had gone, “So doctor I hear you’re the cheapest doctor in town and you’re known as the homeless doctor.” Then I’d be a bad improviser if I didn’t take on a voice and didn’t try to [gruffly] “Oh yeah!” and get a gravelly, homeless type voice. So I have to do a character then.  I’m being told by the initiation to be something more than what I am for the sake of a scene. So yeah, I mean sometimes a character is called for. Sometimes it isn’t. And you can come up with a great character that organically comes from the suggestion. That isn’t a support character; it’s just an initiation. You can start out the scene that way. Hopefully it came from something. [...] It’s not just something I’m good at doing. And to be honest, that’s something a lot of people do. SL: Well, let me get a little improv schooling from you then. If someone initiates with me, something like “Hey man, stop looking at my test.” My first instinct would be to play a character. I’m always going to listen for my character. So I’m the type of guy who’s a fuck up or a slacker and I *need* to steal off his test. And I’m immediately, going [like a stoner] “Oh yeah, sure.” And I’m immediately going to take on all the affectation of sort of a burnout. MB: That’s okay! SL: You’d have to see how it plays out, but does that seem like [a good scene start]? MB: You have to yes-and until you hit the unusual things. I don’t see an unusual thing there. People don’t like to be cheated on. I’m just yes-anding. If he’s making me a character with his initiation, and you’re like “Well, what is a cheater?” Cheaters are kinda slackey and kinda losers and I’m gonna slouch my back because I’m thinking of the guy who used to cheat off me in highschool--well, you’re yes-anding there. But if you go way past that and become just totally fucking weird... you can’t confuse game characters with support characters. A support character is doing what is asked of him. He’s just yes-anding. He’s just doing what helps the scene.  The game character is a character that is the game. The character is the premise. You just don’t want your character to be so unusual [that it’s the unusual thing now] and now that’s what it has to be. If it organically happens, it’s fine. If it seems forced in there, it’s like “Oh that guy, no matter what you do with him he’s always gonna initiate a huge character and make it about that.” And there are some guys like that. I don’t want to improvise with you. Because I feel like you’re not playing with me. You’re playing for yourself. You just gotta yes-and to “yes,” that doesn’t mean “Oh he wants me to [stop cheating].”... the improviser actually wants you to keep cheating on him. So it’d be denial to stop cheating on him. So yes, he wants you to keep cheating because that’s what he wants to explore, people cheating on each other. And you yes-and. You keep adding details and yes-anding until something organically happens. But I just hate it when someone’s like “Hey stop cheating off me,” and [then someone says]  “Hey man! I just want to get high off this bong!” It’s like, “Woah! you just right away forced an unusual thing that just came out of nowhere but your own brain.” And a lot of those people that maybe do characters all the time, if you notice they’re doing the same characters a lot. And that’s just selfish. ### That’s it for Part 1! Come back in a few days for part two of more improv nerd talk with Matt Besser. We’re gonna walk-through how he pulls a premise from a monologue, how he knows what’s a good premise worth playing, and justifications. All very interesting stuff.

-Sean London

Watch Me Perform | Follow me on Twitter!

Related Posts:

Part two

Part three

In the meantime, be sure to checkout: Improv4humans Freakdance