To be completely fair to him, his disorders are relatively mild (General Anxiety Disorder and Obsessive Compulsive Disorder), but he's at the point where he's creepy enough to scare people away from him. The fact that he's also an abnormally powerful telepath with an alien symbiote in his right hand may also have somthing to do with it as well...
So, how do you propose I protray him?
Well, Ivan Emmerich, my PC in a Cthulhu Tech game, is, for lack of a better term, nuts. And not the good, "Freakazoid" nuts, or the better "Belkar" nuts, but the real-life, can't-function-in-society-as-a-normal-person nuts.
To be completely fair to him, his disorders are relatively mild (General Anxiety Disorder and Obsessive Compulsive Disorder), but he's at the point where he's creepy enough to scare people away from him. The fact that he's also an abnormally powerful telepath with an alien symbiote in his right hand may also have somthing to do with it as well...
So, how do you propose I protray him?
As someone who regularly plays Malkavians, I can tell you it actually isn't that hard to play an insane character. First of all, focus on little things and little details. The first time you worry about being a bit late, no one thinks anything weird is going on. But going on about how every 14.4 minutes lost is 1% of you day wasted? A bit weirder. On things you regularly do, actually reference seconds instead of minutes or hours. Point out to the other characters that they have a speck of dust on their clothes. Even when they don't. If the character speaks multiple languages, switch between them every few phrases. And don't let them convince you that you're doing it. If there's music in the background, always move in time with it. Never, ever blink when you're talking to someone, but maintain eye contact.
On a more basic level, "insane" people have different mechanics than others. Think of your character in "non-Euclidean" terms. A straight line -can- intersect the same point more than once.
Find a few simple things about life, things that aren't even referred to as common sense, things that are just obvious, and forget them. Like the handshaking thing (forget that spitting wetly on your hands in front of someone is disgusting, and focus on the fact that refusing to shake their hand is rude).
Refuse to go through any door that is red because once, when you were 8, your dog got sick and they took it to the hospital, and you went through the front door of the hospital, which was red, and your dog ended up dying. So now, you just =know= that anytime you enter past a red door, something you cherish will be destroyed.
GAD presents with a lot of physical symptoms that are hard to roleplay, but can be done if you think about it right. Nausea? Vomit at the sight of blood, always. After about 3pm complain that you're tired, and want to go get some sleep. When the group beds down, get up 5 minutes later and start pacing, because you can't sleep.
Read up on the disorders, and, if you're really committed (no pun intended), practice. Do thought experiments about how your character would have reacted to a few of your daily activities if s/he were with you in person that day.
Good luck.
So, how do you propose I protray him?
Like Adrian Monk.
I always have to open and perfer to unlock doors myself. if I can't I'll refuse to go through the door.
same with light switches
I can stand to see, hear, feel, or be anywhere close to a certain animal that has a reputation as being man's best friend. I get incredibly uncomfortable just hearing or reading the word. If I hear one barking, I go balistic until I hear a cat meow. I also think I hear barking, and some noises that sren't barking sound like barking to me.
I can stand the number that is one less than twelve. if I see or here it, I must imediatly say twelve. I generally just sit around doing nothing during that hour and through most of the month of november. not sure what I'm going to do in two year's time...
I have a disdain for the color that is considered the oppisite to blue. I do not wear anything of said color, and If I hear it I imediatly say blue.
I refuse to borrow anyone's pencil.
if all else fails, I go to sleep and give myself some time to get over my panic attack. sleep is like hitting "reset" on a video game for me. it's all better.
when I have a panic attack, I generally run around looking for something to calm me down, saying things like "cat" "blue" or "twelve" to try and keep myself as calm as possible.
If I'm letting my friends down, I can overcome a panic attack.
I'm not a germaphobe.
well, that's what life is like with OCD for me. hope that gives you some ideas.
also, despite how hard it is, I like having OCD and don't want to be "normal" or "functional".
I have a disdain for the color that is considered the oppisite to blue. I do not wear anything of said color, and If I hear it I imediatly say blue.
I hope you don't mind, I chuckled quite a bit at that. Not so much at your "problems" just the candidness with which you spoke of them. It sounds like you can, to a degree, laugh at it yourself, even if you can't overcome those things.
Just one thing though, there are three primary colors, of which blue is one, so how does blue have an opposite?
I hope you don't mind, I chuckled quite a bit at that. Not so much at your "problems" just the candidness with which you spoke of them. It sounds like you can, to a degree, laugh at it yourself, even if you can't overcome those things.
Just one thing though, there are three primary colors, of which blue is one, so how does blue have an opposite?
If you fill in the circle, every color has an opposite, complimentary color. Red and green, yellow and purple, blue and orange. That's assuming they mean pigments, because light is different.
I hope you don't mind, I chuckled quite a bit at that. Not so much at your "problems" just the candidness with which you spoke of them. It sounds like you can, to a degree, laugh at it yourself, even if you can't overcome those things.
Just one thing though, there are three primary colors, of which blue is one, so how does blue have an opposite?
oh I think it's less that I can't overcome my problems and more I have no desire to. It's hard to have to live the way I do, but it's not without it's perks either. but yes, I am able to laugh at myself. I know I'm out of my freaking mind, I just try to be as civil and rational about it as a crazy person can be.
I'm not talking in terms of color wheel. the color I'm thinking of starts with the letter r.
http://forums.gleemax.com/showthread.php?t=880483
R.....royal blue? ;)
due to the fact that if I posted earlier, my post would have been the number that I hate, allow me to give you a long overdue
I'm actually going to use some of this. I've been playing an OCD paladin for a few years now, and all of those things are great suggestions.
Though mostly hes had issues with organization, cleanliness, and poles. Every tree/pole he passes within an even number of feet, he has to poke. >.> He also doesn't like any two objects being an uneven distance from each other, so it could be an end of the world scenerio and he'll start moving things (if he has to while hes fighting). One time, he actually jumped an enemy during the enemy revealing their plan to us, because his armor was dirty and he had to clean it. XD so we never figured out what exactly was going on.
But if you really want to make a creepy character, who has a few odd tweeks, just look at the Book of Vile Darkness. In it it has a list of odd character tweeks that would make a good villan. Similarly this would make for nice character traits for an insane character.
Wow
I'm actually going to use some of this. I've been playing an OCD paladin for a few years now, and all of those things are great suggestions.
Though mostly hes had issues with organization, cleanliness, and poles. Every tree/pole he passes within an even number of feet, he has to poke. >.> He also doesn't like any two objects being an uneven distance from each other, so it could be an end of the world scenerio and he'll start moving things (if he has to while hes fighting). One time, he actually jumped an enemy during the enemy revealing their plan to us, because his armor was dirty and he had to clean it. XD so we never figured out what exactly was going on.
I'd like to say that you're missing something. no, this isn't an "I'm offended!" rant about political correctness. let me explain.
the only things that keep me from going on a rampage and slaughtering every annoying barking demon-beast are that I'm good-aligned and that I feel the repercussion from the law.
Panic attacks come less, in my experiance anyway, from your comfort zone being violated and more from your inability to do anything about it. if an evil cult leader was doing something in an attempt to exploit my OCD as a weakness, I would just kill him. problem solved. I wouldn't wipe the scuff off his armor. I'd kill that SOB for wearing scuffed armor know full well it
s me off. that'll show him.But yes, Shmendrick the wizard was (and will be again as I'm remaking him...) crazy. Absolutely nuts. And it drove the other players entirely bonkers as well.
Some things that he did:
- He was absolutely terrified of the dark. He always had a light spell put on the top of his staff even during the day just in case the sun suddenly went out.
- He would talk to people who weren't really there. He would carry on long conversations and finally reach a conclusion about whatever it was and then tell the party. It's a bit of Schizophrenia.
- He would also mumble to himself quite often and use cantrips to "write" arcane formulas in the air - only to wave them away a minute later. He would sometimes do this in locations and on surfaces that were considered "sacred" which got him kicked out of a temple or two.
- He was obsessed with cooking and would often try to puzzle out or create new recipes. They usually didn't taste that good.
- He was very easily distracted and often fell behind the party while adventuring, leading to him having to consistently run to catch up. This distraction and inattentiveness, along with his mumblings, constant light source, and habit of blurting out inane things was a hindrance to the party trying to "sneak" anywhere. He ruined a perfectly good surprise round on many occasions.
Some of these things are simply personality quirks. Others were obvious insanity. Altogether they made a character that everyone hated, and yet loved. I mean, the death threats were CONSTANT, but I was too useful to NOT have around. :D
I hope my ideas have possibly helped someone with a spark of creativity.