Finally I'm getting the chance to actually ROLEPLAY instead of DM tonight. I'm a bit rusty, to be honest, and for some reason I've chosen to play an extemely challenging character.

Here's the gist: he's crazy, but not LOL RANDOM MONKEY ROBOT crazy. Think subtle, interesting, devious. Health Ledger's Joker and Dexter mixed up somewhat.

His skills are all about manipulating people, pretending to be someone he's NOT, and, kind of ironically, being able to read other people's motivations and detect lies.

Anyhow, I'm looking for inspiration. Googling this on the internet yielded results mostly for text-based RPGs, which isn't necessarily applicable.

So, my question to you is.... in your experiences, what made a good (interesting and fun) insane player character?

After reading your post, the first thought I had was Shawn Spencer from the TV show Psych .

You might also consider House .

I know neither of them are in a fantasy context, but both are a bit off their rockers, but still function in society fairly well, yet both meet your other qualifications (reading motivations and detecting lies). They're both pretty good shows too - so there's always that.

Ho ho! That sounds promising. I'll check those out!

The character you describe seems more pyschopathic than anything. The joker is clearly a pyschopath, one conversation with him and you would know it, where dexter it would take awhile. The key with this kind of character is pretending to be someone this character meets. What exactly is the kind of perception someone would have of this character. Would they be afraid or laugh them off? Once you figure out how you want people to react to him then it becomes much easier to role play it.

The joker is an excellent example because the two best portrayals of the character is ledger and mark hamil. In ledgers case, he makes your skin crawl and all you want to do is be away from the character as quickly as possible. On the other hand the mark hamill joker is so funny and outlandish at times, some people would forget the dangers of hanging around him, just to see the next insane thing he does He doesn't make your skin crawl like ledger but you still get the same feeling of insanity. .

Visually I see him as a lot like Daniel Day Lewis as Bill the Butcher from Gangs of New York.

He's an Agent who likes his profession a little too much- that is, spying on people, manipulating them into revealing their dark secrets and apprehending them. He's not much a fighter- his style is to slit someone's throat when their guard is down.

Also, part of his method is to gauge people's reactions to him. Examples of this are: exaggerating an accent (he's a Stirlander, and they're known for being slow in speech and dim witted, so he plays up on that), walking with a limp and a cane (which he doesn't really need), wearing an eyepatch (which he also doesn't need).

Personality wise, he's always trying to read people- to find their true selves. I would like him to SLITHER into their awareness. Even dominate it.

Another TV source of inspiration might be Neal from White Collar .

He's neck deep in the world of forgery, art theft, cons, grifts, etc., only now he's forced to work for the FBI - so he's always working some kind of angle. He's not crazy, but he's very deceptive and reading motivations and methodologies. He's in the sticky situation of wanting to maintain his criminal contacts and probably at some point return to it - while forced to wear an ankle bracelet and help out an FBI agent. It's a delicate balance that he (most of the time) pulls of brilliantly.

You won't get the crazy part from this show - but it couldn't hurt as far as showing how to be manipulative without being overt. Like my other suggestions, it's a great show - so that part doesn't hurt either.

In regards to Sinister's post - he's right about the Joker. Hamil's version is much less immediately dangerous, so your PC wouldn't have everyone immediately drawing their weapons waiting for you to lose it. The Hamil version is goofy first, dangerous just beneath the surface. I don't think Ledger's version could be considered anything other than a first-rate sociopath. While it might be fun to play, unless your GM is pretty generous I don't see too many interactions going well for you.

Jaysin1414 said:

Very true.

I guess that is more the angle that I should take: a figure who's horrific nature comes out only once in a while, rather than ALL the time.

Well I can't think of too many movie verisons, I think what you may be looking for is something along the lines of the scorpion courtiers from the Legend of the Five Rings game. They are master manipulators and downright evil without being noticeably so. There school allows them not only to see another player's disadvantages but actually give them disadvantages the longer they talk to a player or npc.

Some other possible examples:

Mr. Sinister from the Xmen

Mathias Thullman from the Witch Hunter Warhammer books (he seems to manipulate anyone into getting what he wants)

This character's Action Cards are:

• Honeyed Words (sway target to gain bonus to social actions)
• Twisting Words (goad target to gain bonus to social actions)
• Find Weakness (study target to learn a weakness to exploit)
• Scrutinise (observe target to learn something important)
• Fluster (cajole, frustrate or distract target to gain the advantage)

I don't mind that he's not all that capable of fighting, because, the way that I figure it, he either: worms his way out of it, or he has already manipulated another person to fight in his stead.

Otherwise he'll be great at social combat. Some of those actions grant extra fortune dice or free maneuvers against a "scrutinized" opponent. So at least he has a bit of a support role.

funny thing really

how come that GMs as players tend to make more complicated PCs than non GMs?
at least that is my experience of it. Is it because they are used to portraying several characters per session, often improvised? that lead to this certain advant-garde pattern of player creation.

not that I complain, (well sometimes one of my player`s who also happen to a GM, makes a character that is little off the top) its just an observation.

I myself revel in the simplicity of a character, when I get the chance to be a player, no complicated story or psyche here. Just the relaxing simplicity of playing a role, immerse with that character and make interesting desicion making. After all playing a role in a story is like playing another part of yourself, since all roles you play are just an interpretation of how you think another person thinks or behave. I like to think what would I do if I was present at this given situation in a rpg? how would I react or respond to that or this? In a way you get to learn more about yourself when playing rpg. I don`t need to add extra complexity to a character, just to make him more interesting.

Beside many people have the sad tedency to use insanity as a comic relief or as a quirk to justify some irrational behaviour or desicion. "my character behaves like this (insert irrational or illogical behaviour) because of this and this madness (insert a mental illness that can vaguely justify your action).

many think of being unbalanced mentally is the same as being insane. that is a wrong assumption. insanity and mental illness are described as a mental condition that prohibit the patient to be able to function normaly in society. (defining normal would be interesting here but somewhat off the topic).

Insanity should be dealt with in a serious way and not portrayed as interesting PC options or backgrounds. thinks like Psychotic disordes, schizophrenia, and dissociative disorders should be avoided at all cost, since they are pretty serious. Both your examples show the extremes within mental disorders, and I would advice that instead you create a background to explain why he is a bit unbalanced (hard childhood, victim of violence, or war refugee), than draw three insanity cards pick one, that explain that " the PC behave like this (insanity card), because of this (background trauma)".

I like the insanity cards since they are more related to post-stress trauma than mentally disorders (which often can be genetically traced, like schizophreniform disorders). which means your character can functions no matter how many or what insanity card he gets, like for instance oppossed to catatonia in CoC which render any PC unusable.

woah, didn`t mean to come out this strong against you, rather I try to make a point about taking insanity more serious in rpgs. so in a way this is not all for you but for every gamer out there.

anyway I am very confident that you are able to make a very solid character. so feel free to ignore my ramblings.

good gaming

Naw, I pretty much agree with you. Why on earth do I always try to make in-depth, convoluted characters? In my attempt to avoid making a cliché, I've done exactly that.

You know what? I think that my PC is just gonna be a guy. A manipulative, scheming guy, but no gimmick-y madness mixed in.

Why not draw some inspiration from those 70's and 80's detective series like "Monk" and "Columbo". Both those characters are shrewd and clever and mnipulate people - but they can definately be called 'quirky'. Sometimes a small idiosyncracity can give the character a great degree depth.

I don't see this as being particularly damaging to a character or that hard to play.

Alp