The lunatic character

Obviously Blue Moon is making me thoughtful! oO
How could that happen? All i wanted from this site was steamy sex scenes...
but here it goes...

Lunatic characters - characters suffering from one (or more) mental illnesses.
Yes or no? And why? What's the appeal playing them? How do you go about playing them? Do your own conditions influence your rp?


Yes or no?
For me it's a tentative "yes". Tentative because I have one (or more *l*) mental illnesses. So for me it's a touchy subject. Which makes parts of the appeal.
Elaborating on that: I have a mild form of Asperger's syndrome (yes. I still call it that, i am not happy with calling it "I am on the spectrum of autistic disorders"). To me, rping is an outlet. Because I can display the rich variety of emotions that I -do- feel.
Just that others do not understand that: "I strongly disagree with your line of thought, do you have considered factors x, y and z?" for me means I am in a full blown RAGE! Really. To me, having to say this sentence means white hot anger... a full blown rage mode... I feel sick inside, my stomach is in knots, and it -feels- as if I am yelling that sentence on top of my lungs.
"I really am not happy with this!" - to me feeling that is "crying my eyes out, feeling as if i will never ever be happy again in my entire life."

For me, that's -extreme- emotions. Usually I "feel" mild amusement towards most everything. To drive me into these emotions it takes a LOT of effort. And so it is hard for me to understand "human emotions". I have spent most of my youth learning to read other people, so while I -know- the person I am talking with is feeling sad (angry, happy, in love... whatever) it took even more fucking effort to understand "why" the person is feeling like that. "Yeah that bitch kissed my ex, I want to TEAR her hair out, I want to kill her, I HOPE both will NEVER be happy again..." erm... yeah. My "emotions" in the same scenario happening to me: "Oh? Ok...."

So... playing deeply emotional characters is... yeah... kind of a "therapy". It's an outlet that allows me to indulge in emotional depth that is mostly closed to me. I imagine feeling white hot rage at things that I usually would give a rat's ass about.

It's "tentative" too, because there's disorders I simply cannot play. I dont wanna. Mostly conditions that are induced, in contrast to conditions that just "are". Like: Schizophrenia. You just are. It's not trauma-induced. It's an imbalance in your brain's chemistry. That's totally fine to play out. It can be fun to play it out in the extremes. (Yeah yeah... I -am- schiziphrenic... so... if I play a character suffering from that I would always approach the extreme, cause "I have it under control, it doesn't inhibit me really, in fact I learned to use it in my advantage" just wouldn't be any fun but my normal life).

DIS on the other hand? Never. You are not born like that. You are made. You have moved through traumatic experiences before the age of 3 (when your personality is "ready"). No. I don't want to play a young woman who has been shattered into piece as a baby. Just... no.

(Whoa. Im realizing how complicated I can be! PTSD is ok, even though it is an "induced" condition. "Depression" on the other hand... where's the fun in that? Even though it is "just there" and not "induced by trauma")

What's the appeal playing them?

That it allows for plot and stories. That it's not "slice of life" but "an adventure". That it causes me to play outside of my comfortzone. That it allows me to do things a "normal" character of mine would not be able to do. That I can lean back and blame it on the disorder if I want to (something I'd never do rt. oO Im a weirdo!) and not take responsibility for an action.

How do you go about playing them?
I research the disorder. I try to get IC hard with lunatic characters. I carefully pick the mental disorder that I feel capable of rping out. I try to have in mind in which "stage" of the disorder the character is. Like... for me it was "normal" to "talk with myself". I didn't understand I am "lunatic" for a long time. It was in my early twenties that I found out that other people do -not- have to discuss decisions with themselves before they can make that decision. I didn't understand why others could say: "Yeah sure, let's meet at 9 pm tonight" in the blink of an eye, while I needed so much time.
"Yeah, but we wanted to take a long hot bath... uh huh sure, but we can take the bath tomorrow morning instead... right, but xy is going to be there too, i don't want to see xy. Oh come on, it's just some fun, couple of drinks and a game of darts, let's just go there. Baaaaaah, but I dont LIKE playing darts. I suck at it. We don't do stuff I suck at. And xy is still going to be there and I don't want to see him. Ok how about we skip our last class today, go home early, take the bath and go out after. We don't play darts, we just have the drinks and cheer the teams on? Ok? No? Oh come on what's the matter with THIS solution now?" - "Ummm... I don't know yet, Ill let you know when I checked my schedule, k?"

Ever since I -know- it isn't normal to have voices talking with you inside your head, it's much easier to handle myself in public. So... I try to consider the "stage" when I play a lunatic. Are they aware they are? Which means... can they handle their disorder or even UTILIZE their madness in their advantage maybe? Or are they helpless victims of their condition still? And I try to keep in mind that it is "normal" for the person to be lunatic. They do not know life could be different. So... while the effect on the other players in the story can be great... the character himself is "just" living "his normal life".
Are they in an episode at that moment? Do they have triggers? What are the triggers? That's basically the stuff I try to consider before I play a lunatic.

Do your own conditions influence your rp?
Quite obviously... yes! Yes they do! *l* After typing up this thread I will need a good hour of discussion of how much they do, if they really do and if I should stop rping maybe.

I think referring to people suffering from mental illnesses as lunatics is somewhat questionable, but all characters I play will generally have unique traits that make them more real. And yes I have been diagnosed with mental illnesses.

I find when I create a character and consider their background, I think about a few things. I think about their sexuality and how they personally feel about sex and love. I think about their trauma. Not just the bad things that happened to them in life but how they coped with those things and how they adapted around it. PTSD is something i'm quite familiar with so, exploring that through characters can be somewhat therapeutic. Some of my characters may also suffer from various forms of mental illnesses be it depression, personality disorders, etc.

So yes when all of these things come together within a character, they may not define the character but how the character copes with it all is what defines it.

No offense meant with the term "lunatic". I needed a term to describe what I mean, and I didn't mean a character who just happens to suffer from a disorder (like depression, or social anxiety, PTSD or....) but a character you specifically create around the disorder. With the disorder being a central element of the story.
That's why I chose the term "lunatic". To highlight the "fantasy" element of it. To highlight it's a character you've chosen for the psychological condition, and not a character happening to have one.

oO Whoa. HARD to explain. Rereading my opening post i see where there could offense happen with it. Please trust me when i say i use the term "lunatic" not to demean but to make it very clear that its a character. A fantasy illness. Like "I play an elf..." "I play a lunatic" "I play an orc"... more... a "roleplaycharacter class" than describing the real thing.

Fantasy is my favorite genre and the one I use the most for my roleplaying. I still don't see how using mental illnss in fantasy changes it to warrant a different description. Maybe how people around may treat or handle mental illness. I can certainly see how masses in that setting may refer to a character in such a way but that's all. Maybe that's what you meant.

I'm not saying you meant to offend, I'm merely pointing out the problem in referring to it that way.

I didn't mean a character who just happens to suffer from a disorder (like depression, or social anxiety, PTSD or....) but a character you specifically create around the disorder. With the disorder being a central element of the story.

Click to expand...

I think this is more of a difference in how we create characters and not a misunderstanding. My character building is very organic. I don't really approach creating a character with "i'm going to make them like this, and give them this trait and this backstory" It's more of a discovery. I'll have an image of a character in my mind and then i'll explore them.Typically starting with a small scene in my head. What are they doing in the scene? Why are they doing it? What brought them here to this point? It always feels like the character creates its self rather than the other way around. The disorder may very well be a predominant aspect of the character but due to how I build my characters I don't plan for it, it either happens or it doesnt.

Sometimes characters will suprise me. Like a character I'm writing for my medieval fantasy novel. I had already written many scenes when I realized she was both asexual and autistic. This isn't something I planned, but it's something that was occuring nautrally in how the character behaved. In becoming aware of it I was able to enhance the story a bit by adding more details to accomodate, but it was already there being displayed by the character.

I thoroughly enjoy playing characters that suffer from mental illness of some sort. But, I also enjoy darker themes such as mutilation and dismemberment. In a story I'm writing, my character is suffering harshly from paranoid schizophrenia. In other stories, my characters suffer from Narcissism Disorder and sometimes Dissociative Identity Disorder. I enjoy making my characters suffer because frankly, where's the fun if no one is screaming in agony?

But no, I find it makes the role-plays much more fun for me to have a character that is fundamentally flawed in such a terrible way. Sometimes they even believe they're doing the right thing!

It's interesting for me to explore a sick mind that isn't my own

Caliente, I can't see how you can say it's a touchy subject and yet tackle it like that, honestly. I can't quite understand either that you label it as a fictionalized thing (something that could be already iffy) like elves and orcs in a thread that it's supposedly about (good) character building.

Other than that, I agree with Raina.

I can label it as a fictionalized thing because to me it -is-. What i play has nothing to do with really suffering from PTSD. Has nothing to do with true paranoia. It is a game. That i play in a environment allowing for such games to take place.
It's no more tasteful or disgusting than a white cis-female playing a "big black cock" "raping" a "white whore". Many on here play with the taboo. With the forbidden. With incest and racial slurs and blackmail and rape. Generally with "touchy subjects". Many on here play with the cliche. With stereotypes.
And it's ok, because it is consenting adults playing with these touchy subjects. I'd never ever think rape was anything but a terrible crime. Still i think it's ok to call it "rape" when consenting adults play it out and get off about it. Because it is not rape, if consenting adults choose to do stuff to their respective characters. It's fiction.
The same for me is true about mental illnesses in an online roleplay environment. They are not real when I play them. They are fiction. I do not know how a flashback feels. I can rp having one none the less. Because it's not the real thing. It's rp. I know how other mental disorders feel - and I choose not to play the "real thing" but the extremes. Extremes that i can just imagine. That I do have no first hand experience with feeling.
But I don't know how it feels to drive a sword through a monster and slay it either. I have never sailed a ship. I have never spent a night in a luxurious hotel suite (39.90 bucks per night in a shabby thing calling itself hotel is the closest to that I've ever been) and I have never had a MMF threesome. I still enjoy rping all of these. It's the beauty of rping. That you can imagine things you never ever have to go through in your real life. And that's why i try to make it crystal clear that "playing someone with mental disorder X" has -nothing- to do with the "real thing" for me. And yeah.. that's how i can say "it's touchy" and still tackle it - though I don't know what "like this" is meaning. And that's how i -must- label it as a fictionalized thing.
Cause it would feel really wrong to get off of a real person's very real disorder. But it's cool for me to get off of a fictional person's fictional problem!

Referring to having a mental illness as "lunacy" kind of grinds my bones, even if you just view it as a "fictional" thing. Characters I write tend to have mental health disorders, often traits of my own disorder if not enough to qualify for a diagnosis themselves if they were a real person. I can't write "normal" characters as well as I can borderline ones because I have no understanding what a "normal" way to go about things is as I live the extremes and so that's what ends up being easiest to write/relate to.

To each their own but I think tackling mental illness should be handled with tact so I go about it in that manner rather than used as a stereotype or for the sake of playing "crazy". Obviously, you're welcome to disagree.

I'm fortunate enough not to have any diagnosed mental health condition, so that doesn't influence my characters or my stories. However, I do enjoy playing what some would refer to as 'mentally ill'' characters.

I'm currently writing a sociopathic serial-killer, born that way, who revels in the knowledge that he's not normal according to accepted societal standards, and a young man afflicted with PTSD stemming from religious abuse suffered as a child.

Neither have ever been diagnosed, and although other characters of mine could also be potentially be assessed as suffering a mental health condition, judging from some of their actions - does a man rape if he's not 'ill', does one deliberately manipulate and lie out of nothing but greed if he's not 'sick' - those are the ones where a portrayal of the condition itself, and its effects, are major drivers of the plot and what the story is about. In conjunction with my co-collaborator whose characters in each are afflicted with their own issues.

The appeal? Well, first of all the overall story concept has to engage my mind. However, using those as specific examples;

With the first, it's in being able to play around with the nature vs nurture debate, write an intentionally provocative story, and the challenge inherent in attempting to portray a man as both pure, unadulterated evil and three-dimensional;

In the second, it's being able to write a character affected by circumstances outside of his control which led to him, sadly, turning out how he has, never provided a fair opportunity to realise the true potential of who/what he could have been. Whilst also - even if no-one else does read it or sees it as such - making social commentary in an enjoyable, creative way on an issue I feel strongly about.

Not to mention that, in my opinion, fiction would be pretty boring and villains thin on the ground if all characters were 'normal'.

What is normal anyway?