Forums » RP Discussion » Rps + Your Emotions = ...?

So today one of my characters broke up with her boyfriend, and towards the end of it when things were still emotional but settling down I realized I had the strongest urge to start bursting into tears over what was happening.

And thinking back on that and certainly NOT in the mood to cry (Yay!), I'm suddenly compelled to ask... does anyone else here ever get emotionally involved in roleplay events, voluntarily or involuntarily, in some way? Or am I some sort of weird "odd man out" here?

Sometimes things that have happened to my characters or my character has witnessed have affected me. After a painful breakup, I added a similiar event to one character's backstory that eventually become central to his entire life. Thankfully, I was better at dealing with it than he was

I've cried several times during Rps. I have to shut my door and lock it or else my family will see and be all "WTF ARE YOU CRYING FOR?" and I"ll have to say "...An RP..."

But yeah. I've been reduced to a blubbering little mess because of some RPs that are just too sad.

@Angelus- Y'see, that's the odd thing with me. I react opposite to how my characters do. They baw or get mad, I barely bat an eyelash. They brush things off (mostly), I'm bawling or getting PO'd (mostly bawling-- I haven't been angry at IC events in a long while).

@Celestina- Auugh I have that worry with my folks, that they'll see me reacting like I do. I feel like I have to compose myself in time because otherwise I feel ridiculous at having to explain to my parents that what is essentially story-writing with multiple folks has gotten me so worked up. ><;

I'm usually pretty good at being outside of my characters, so when extremely emotional stuff is going on with them, it doesn't really affect my own feelings in any way at all, especially if I have some relationship with the players of any other characters in the scene. I think the only exception is the fact that I find the misfortune (or anger) of some of my characters absolutely hilarious. However, I find that roleplays which are really emotionally intense are really exhilarating for me as a writer--achieving that level of substance is one of the triumphs of roleplay, and I often encourage whatever is occurring with stuff like, say, appropriate music, that helps me capitalize on the mood and do my best to keep it solid and powerful for as long as it logically should be.

I will admit that I have always thought it to be rather odd when people would react on their character's own emotions, or be affected by them, and I'm actually pretty surprised to find that there are more people who do than I thought! I suppose (and know) that if you've invested so much of yourself in something as personal as a character, you do tend to get attached in different ways. Very interesting!

While I am attached to my characters, I have no qualms about putting them through hell if the storyline calls for it. Romain got possessed and killed, then when the monster was gone, he had a few minutes to realise he was dieing. Forsard was killed by my NPC, the lich-like mage slavery ship Captain who ties into all of my stories. Pulchra died, then was brought back. I don't think I've ever actually cried over an rp, but I have sometimes sat there like '' if it's particularly potent. Not because I am feeling what they are, but because I sympathise with them like an outsider viewing what is going on.
And on other matters, I've been at my PC helpless with laughter before now from an RP.

My characters move me the same way a good book or a movie does.

I cry at the movies allll the time, but I don't feel personally angry with the actors or anything. Same with RPs. Many have made me weep, or laugh out loud, but I find both experiences cathartic and indicative of a really wonderful story unfolding. I think it's a good thing, so long as you aren't actually personally hurt afterward.

I've cried a few times over some Rps... One in particular made me bawl my bloody eyes out like a little girl

Right now I pretty much haven't played my main character in over a month for this very reason. I'm a big fan of realistic RP, so it's great when tragic and and unfortunate things happen to my characters, but in this case, so much bad stuff happened over the span of a few months that it gets me really down to play the doc because he's just miserable.

That doesn't mean that I think emotional reactions to what characters do is a bad thing. Normally, any strong emotional reaction to play spurs me on to play moar, but there are limits. And you never, never, never want it to affect your OOC relationships with other players.

I am pretty much right there with Edwarde.

Roleplays that are emotionally high tend to be more intense and exciting for me, I may feel something for them, however I am completed detached from my characters. I might feel something- pity, sadness, happiness, amusement - but it isn't to the point that I may cry (or jump around with glee). I do make sure I am completely separate from character, I am me, and she is she, and we are certainly not the same people. I think this is to avoid any online drama that is rife within Furcadia. And it is completely entertaining to roleplay someone that is not me at all (like acting).
I sometimes don't roleplay with highly emotional players (and I am not saying there is anything wrong with being that way) because I have experienced, in the past, negative OOCly feelings when my character (who isn't me) has done something manipulating or conniving. I avoid drama like it's a plague and have done quite well in avoiding any OOC hurt feelings due to IC interactions.
Don't get me wrong, I am completely attached to my main as I have been playing her for five and a half years, and pretty active since day one.

Senny actually put it really well:

I can remember one RP that was so dramatic, when it was over it left me feeling the same way watching an intense movie does afterward. It was not what I expected but did think it was a great experience

In my view, RP is just another form of acting. Good actors don't need menthol to cry when their character takes an emotional blow.

Because of this, I've had to throw away characters because of the emotional charge. Several characters just had so much misery piled up on them, I couldn't bear to play them to get them out of that hole. I normally just killed them off or made a new character, but recently, I've just abandoned a character and we'll see if I can't pick her back up in a few months. (Side note: It's a stupid idea to have a roleplay setting with your boyfriend and put your characters into a relationship.)

I love doing that to my characters. XDD More drama = more interesting RP! But that doesn't mean I won't start sobbing like a child when my character's baby dies at birth. *snifflesniffle*

I don't tend to emotionally 'bleed' too much from my characters to me - except for perhaps one particular example. I'm usually pretty good at keeping myself quite seperate from my characters, just in order to avoid the drama potential that's been discussed a little upthread. Just something you have to do in order to avoid bad blood, and all.

In a rather large game I played in over on Livejournal, though, I had a chance to submit an application for a closed character class. There were to be five of these characters, each tied to an element, that served as oracles, priestesses, and a kind of biological defense system for their country. Four of the slots were taken by the time I got my application in, so I was able to kind of get a feel for what the other characters were like when designing my oracle of wind. The others were all young (none of them above the age of 20), beautiful (standard for the position, as the country's theocracy operated on beauty being a godly trait), pious, and for the most part, quiet and subservient.

I decided that the cathedral they lived in needed some source of drama. Still beautiful and pious, as was required for the position, but an actual woman at the age of 35, and most strikingly (and something I'd never played before), extremely emotional and outspoken. The woman lived and breathed emotes - and changed her mood every other second. She was a riot to play, and did she ever fulfill her purpose of drama, but damn. At times, when she would really get riled up, I would actually feel her fury, or pain, or deep sorrow and hopelessness. It made her very interesting to play - and very tiring, too, as she switched back and forth from anger to laughter!

Haha, wow, this topic took off like a Blue Angel jet overnight! Gonna keep this reply semi-short 'cause I'm sick and brain does not want to brain today.

I'm not my characters and they aren't me, but I understand what some of them end up going through-- as Senny put it, it's like an outsider looking in who's been "there" before. I enjoy conflict & drama, because it's such a change from generic chit-chat. But sometimes it's going to put on the emotional works in one way or another because, yes, I am a pretty emotional person. I guess that's the effect of realism on me.

I get emotionally involved a lot, but rarely parallel with my characters. Often I get super-excited when I'm posting in a really good thread with a lot of action, but it's just excitement, and usually glee, even if my characters are suffering or furious or dying. Writing them happy does lift my spirits a bit sometimes, though. That happens most prominently with Wizard, one of the characters I have up on this site--he's explicitly a character I play when I'm either feeling down and need the pep-up or am feeling energized and need to channel that energy, because he is so happy and bouncy almost all the time.

Like Ashe, though, I did have one character I had to quit because I couldn't deal with the level of trauma in his life. I'd thought I was game for giving him hell, but due to the way the game was going it was so relentless, without any breathing space, that not only was he absolutely miserable and irreparably emotionally damaged IC, but playing him was making me miserable OOC. So he went away.

For me, this depends on the character. Gadd, for example, has had plenty of things happen to him, and it always seems downhill for him. While he sometimes disregards these emotions, I have to take them in consideration. There are times when he lets loose and some emotion is thrown out at everyone, and during these times, I do feel for him. Responses to deaths, losses and desperation is as much part of me as it is a part for Gadd or Lubeck. I know where the line is drawn, of course, and I enjoy going through these troubling times, it brings out character development, and sometimes can bring a tear to my eye even~

My case is pretty much the same as with Edward, I love it when I'm in RP's that are emotionally intense or exciting. But I have that with movies, comics and games (with an especially awesome storyline) too.
At times in many rpgs, often at the final stages, I really felt pushed to go on as if I'm completely synchronized with my character and I've had that a few times while rping too.