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  • File :1241656784.jpg-(137 KB, 400x627, wormthatwalks.jpg)
    137 KB Anonymous 05/06/09(Wed)20:39 No.4486089  
    sup /tg/, how do you RP a convincing alienist? Not a malk, not a lolrandumb caster, but an individual touched by the Far Realms.

    I was thinking of playing a character as the textbook case of schizoid personality disorder, but it lacks intrigue.
    >> Anonymous 05/06/09(Wed)20:44 No.4486123
    why hello there page 10
    >> Anonymous 05/06/09(Wed)20:45 No.4486129
    No remorse. Betray your fellow humans at every oppurtunity to better serve either yourself or the dark powers that you aim to serve.

    And get rid of that damned floating spikey thing so no one can telefrag Shub-Niggurath again, will you?
    >> Anonymous 05/06/09(Wed)20:45 No.4486132
    Play a character barely in control. There is the borderline insane original personality, and there is the alien entity that is barely restrained in his mind. Always trying to break free and take control of the body and warp it to suit it better.

    This makes every level of alienist, rather than an increase in power, a decrease in control as the alien possession takes more control.

    Eventually, have your character throw themselves off of a cliff or something in a final act of defiance why they still can. A few days later, show up again, the original personality completely subsumed.


    I once did this with a guy possessed by the seven deadly sins. It was fun, but kinda depressing toward the end.
    >> Anonymous 05/06/09(Wed)20:46 No.4486134
    Give them a very disassociated view of the world around them. Have the character react very little to any sort of mundane event in the world since they have glimpsed things of terrible and unearthly significance. After your mind has traveled beyond the mortal realm and its mortal laws then conventional society and morality have little to no meaning unless you are desperately trying to cling to them.
    >> Anonymous 05/06/09(Wed)20:50 No.4486153
    >>4486134

    Actually good suggestion.
    >> Anonymous 05/06/09(Wed)20:51 No.4486161
    >>4486134

    Forgot to mention: make sure the character is on an entirely different emotional spectrum from normal humans: either dead and cold or filled with a burning zeal for the Outside forces they serve. You can combine both to great effect by having a character with a deadpan voice & emotionless face whose voice is heavy with a deep and disturbing sense of love whenever they commit some act which will further the alien agendas of their masters.
    >> Anonymous 05/06/09(Wed)20:54 No.4486183
    http://members.shaw.ca/csstrowbridge/Tulzscha/MainPage.htm
    >> The Old /co/ldier !1V6Z4xOlI6 05/06/09(Wed)21:00 No.4486231
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    "I was born to murder the world!"
    >> Merle !ApPkmtJbAE 05/06/09(Wed)21:01 No.4486237
    Semi-random mood shifts are a good thing. Start laughing softly to yourself at inappropriate moments.

    Start off almost-normal, and then just crank up the "weird" as you gain levels, like >>4486132 suggested.
    >> Anonymous 05/06/09(Wed)21:01 No.4486242
    You play him as completely convinced that this reality is an illusion or a dream, while his dreams and visions of the Far Realm are actually his waking life.

    This could manifest in a lot of ways, like being conveniently unfamiliar with the laws of physics, social propriety, or even your own body. Not in a LOLRANDOM way--you're still grounded in *A* reality, just not *this* one.
    >> The Old /co/ldier !1V6Z4xOlI6 05/06/09(Wed)21:02 No.4486249
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    "I've come back to give you the wisdom of the grave."
    >> The Old /co/ldier !1V6Z4xOlI6 05/06/09(Wed)21:05 No.4486266
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    "I'm going to show the world what's waiting at the end.
    And I am going to make it...despair."
    >> Anonymous 05/06/09(Wed)21:05 No.4486269
         File :1241658311.png-(372 KB, 402x457, Darkseid.png)
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    >>4486089
    The Far Realm is.
    >> Anonymous 05/06/09(Wed)21:07 No.4486283
    I'm currently doing so in my current campaign. The character compartmentalized his mind so that he can interact 'normally' (he's an oddball) while interacting with mortals/immortals, and can quickly 'change his mind' into something entirely different to handle the mind-blowing weirdness of the Far Realm.

    If he ever get's stuck in his other mind, he'll do stuff like say things out of context in a conversation, and say the exact same thing in a different conversation and have it be entirely applicable, stand still when he's moving because he forgot that he has to move his legs to travel, stuff like that.
    >> Anonymous 05/06/09(Wed)21:09 No.4486299
    A potentially interesting route to go is to simply have the Far Realm be represented by possession.

    The character has two utterly different sides, or at least is a twisted parody of the usual self while taken over. As time goes on these evil episodes become longer and longer. At first play the sides as very different and easily distinguisjhed, as the campaign progresses, the sides grow into one another and become harder to tell apart, until at last you are completely "one" with the entity.

    The player can be fighting this the entire time if you like. The character is in a terrible game of chicken with the entity. If the character does not become better and better at magic, then the entity will learn all his/her tricks and take over. Becoming more powerful and able to control arcane forces allows the character to keep the entity at bay. However, by becoming more powerful, the character raises the ante and risk if the entity ever gains full control. This makes the character completely obsessed with mastering arcane lore in order to "win."

    It's fun to tie these into the mechanics somehow:

    *Like 7th Sea flaws: once per game session, another player can "activate" possession. then you have to go through a set (or rolled) number of encounters with the different/altered personality.

    *Saving throws or attacks against Will when bloodied or when dropped to zero HP. If you fail, you get taken over.
    >> Anonymous 05/06/09(Wed)21:09 No.4486300
    You can play as a genuinely logical character whose concept of logic is just noticeably off.

    Like "people like it when you smile, so I'll smile to everyone." Not a faked, forced smile either. Just a genuinely warm perma-smile.

    The laws of logic are important to the character. If he didn't have them he couldn't be human. Or at least do a half-decent human impersonation.
    >> Anonymous 05/06/09(Wed)21:11 No.4486315
    Be a normal person. Just by different rules.
    >> Anonymous 05/06/09(Wed)21:11 No.4486316
    >>4486134

    This works really well. Make them extremely dispassionate to most events. But also have them keenly interested in the most overlooked things. I don't mean "lolshiny beads!" but something like stopping in the middle of a dungeon to watch a spider trapping a fly, "It's as a beautiful play, this spider and the fly... a commentary on the futility of life. This fly, is not unlike you, my companions. He lives his life, content, buzzing from place to place... until he falls into the spider's web... Where is our web, I wonder?"
    >> Anonymous 05/06/09(Wed)21:33 No.4486495
    I would say make him a character that cannot correctly process reality anymore. Maybe it shows as getting out of touch with time - speaking and answering questions a minute or two after you normally would, but in a sane, rational way. Be consistent in it.
    I'm currently reading a book called "The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat" which describes cases of really strange neurological disorders. I think that could be one way of playing your character: a sane person that got some esoteric part of his mind irreversibly damaged.
    >> Anonymous 05/06/09(Wed)21:35 No.4486514
    Just eat a quarter ounce of mushrooms before each game.
    >> Anonymous 05/06/09(Wed)21:39 No.4486536
    if your character makes it to epic levels start opening portals to the Far Realms
    >> Anonymous 05/06/09(Wed)21:43 No.4486567
    My favourite way is to play someone inbetween the Far Realm and this realm.

    He, she or it is not at home in both places. Everything is something new and interesting, fascinating and beautiful or horrid and dangerous.

    The alienist might be afraid of rain, wearing thick clothes at all times except inside dry buildings and in deserts. On the other hand, when the BBEG lets it rain blood and gibbly bits the alienist won't even notice.

    Perhaps the alienist is unable to see the tavern on the hill... and when the party guides him to the tavern, he simply walks right through the tavern, only to appear on the other side of the hill.

    The laws of reality bend around him, giving it a nice RP edge.
    >> Anonymous 05/06/09(Wed)21:52 No.4486652
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    Some other ideas that will hopefully allow you to execute an alien and incomprehensible mindset easily and convincingly:

    1) Pick 2-3 core emotions and swap them. Fear, happiness, Sadness, Anger, Jealousy, etc. For instance, take Fear and Happiness and simply swap them. Whenever others would be upbeat and rejoicing, you become increasingly paranoid and terrified. When others experience intense fear, you become more and more lively and upbeat. Try not to destroy the game's mood of course.

    2) Again, tie things to game mechanics. Your character does not change emotional states or motivation until some game condition comes up; make it obscure. For instance: you will radically or subtly (your choice) change motivation or emotional state only when you roll a 16.

    3) Pick a more obscure personality disorder and emulate it. Particularly one that relates to social interaction or makes you treat one person radically differently.

    4) In combat, do things differently, but not in an ineffective way.
    >> Anonymous 05/06/09(Wed)21:59 No.4486710
    use the term, "far" as key to the problem. the far realm is a place of alien geometries or who knows what else.

    Describe your character as looking far off a lot of the time, not as though they are crazy, but that they are for moments of varying length interacting with another plane.

    Occasionally have the DM make your roll check versus Intimidate when facing a monster but have the monster add a d20 to it's roll. You'll usually lose mechanically, but rp-wise you've viewed another being in the far realm as in your vision it overlapped for a moment. So people wonder why you've been intimidated by a plain goblin....or the mayor's house cat even.

    When you scribe a spell you occasionally write in a language other than the ones the character know, and after completing the writing realizes this an no longer read the script. Or preparing spells or reviewing them you look a far off and when you snap back your companions are asking you why you're transcribing your spellbook on the room of the inn your staying in for the night.

    So all in all, act as though you're interacting with things in a different way, as though in the far realm, as you glimpse it, they interact naturally that way. It's "alien" to others but for moments at least it makes sense to your character before he/she too is made to wonder.
    >> Anonymous 05/06/09(Wed)21:59 No.4486712
    Have the character start off as arrogant. He's confident in his ability to control the unknown powers he's dealing with. After a level or two, have the crushing weight of realization hit him. Now he's not so cocky anymore. He's afraid. He's barely holding onto his sanity and actively fighting for every piece of his mind against unspeakable things. Play him as growing gradually more and more unhinged as he loses the mental battle with the Far Realms. His last act while "in control" is suicide. He throws himself off a cliff or drinks some poison. But it doesn't work. He comes back and rejoins the party. He's still there, though. He's had an epiphany. He finally *understands*... and he loves it.
    >> Anonymous 05/06/09(Wed)22:01 No.4486730
    Further elaborating on >>4486300:
    In conversations, pick associations that are relevant but far from the first choice of words most people would go with. When witnessing a bloody murder scene, comment the vivid shade of red on the ground, and that you didn't know people could get quite as pale as the victim is. They might go unnoticed altogether, or just cause a few occasional awkward moments, but at the least it's a good indication that the individual in question has a somewhat different track of thought from others. Setting themes to it could be intresting as well, such as a complete inability to emotionally grasp certain concepts like mortality and the "inherently evil nature of murder".
    >> Anonymous 05/06/09(Wed)22:03 No.4486743
    >>4486712
    now that is awesome
    >> Anonymous 05/06/09(Wed)22:05 No.4486752
    feel compelled to cobble together your own wizard's robe, but with layers of long tentacle-shaped sleeves or some thing...and has one more sleeve than the character has arms or two or thee hoods on the cloak that increase in size to nest in one another.

    You could do body modification. The character could wake up to find a pain in his side and see that in he middle of the night he had sewn some small everyday object to his side with thread...made of his own hair.

    try to go strange/weird rather than "crazy." it's far more creepy and reflective of the far realm.
    >> Anonymous 05/06/09(Wed)22:08 No.4486776
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    Ness... it hurts.

    Ness... it feels good.
    >> Anonymous 05/06/09(Wed)22:17 No.4486835
    He starts to eat weird stuff. Putting things on his food that "normal" people wouldn't consider. Not necessarily gross stuff, just... weird. For example he orders something spicy with a lot of meat and he puts maraschino cherries on it. He buys a chocolate cake and puts pickle slices on top.
    >> Anonymous 05/06/09(Wed)22:19 No.4486847
    >>4486835

    He orders something with extra [Insert Sauce] and then goes to extreme lengths to scrape the stuff off when he finally gets the food.
    >> Anonymous 05/06/09(Wed)22:36 No.4486953
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    Have him start ritualistically taking a knife to his skin. Cutting long rectangular strips of skin, but leaving them attached at one end. The skin regrows underneath and the flaps of skin continue to grow as well.

    Eventually he'll have entire "sleeves" of these flaps, maybe even forsaking clothes altogether in favor of the skin flaps.
    >> Anonymous 05/06/09(Wed)22:41 No.4486973
    >the flaps of skin continue to grow as well.

    No, they would necrotize for the most part.
    >> Anonymous 05/06/09(Wed)22:46 No.4487005
    >>4486973

    You're forgetting that this guy is deeply connected to the Far Realm (and that this is an RPG).

    Logic and actual medicinal science need not apply.
    >> Anonymous 05/06/09(Wed)22:47 No.4487017
    >>4486973

    http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/RuleOfCool
    >> DAEL'REND 05/06/09(Wed)22:55 No.4487084
    In the setting I use, the Far Realm entity is what became of the original, monotheism based god given he had Omniscience and near Omnipotence without omnipotence of the self.

    Unable to seize control of his endless power, he collapsed into infinite chaos. Reality as we know it is spurned from his body entirely by accident and chance, and the short amount of ordered 'ancients' push back the chaos and create the multiverse through which the setting takes place.

    The reason the 'madness behind the stars' warps you is because it is trying to fix you, to bring you more in line with the cosmic that it originally intended. Powerful aberrants actually work to return power to this being so that it can fix and rebuild the universe without error.

    Arcanists and warped that follow this path have an interesting bend. There is purpose to their changes, not simply to fulfill some personal necessity. They have seen the truth, and in knowing can only work to bring us to a reality that they cannot explain to the visionless. A more perfect realm, beyond comprehension.

    Very giygas, very creepy.
    >> Anonymous 05/06/09(Wed)22:56 No.4487099
    >>4487017
    >butthurt for my stupid idea being shot down
    >> Anonymous 05/06/09(Wed)22:57 No.4487111
    ARCHIVEARCHIVEARCHIVEARCHIVEARCHIVEARCHIVEARCHIVEARCHIVEARCHIVEARCHIVEARCHIVEARCHIVEARCHIVE
    >> Anonymous 05/06/09(Wed)22:58 No.4487121
    >>4487084
    Consider this stolen.

    My PC's will fight the cult of Jahweh... The mad blind God that ate himself and ripped his flesh from inside out.
    >> Anonymous 05/06/09(Wed)23:00 No.4487136
    >>4487111
    Agreed, this is an impressive thread. Great advice, /tg/
    >> Anonymous 05/06/09(Wed)23:01 No.4487153
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    >>4487084

    Very nice.

    Reminds me of the movie Akira (not so much the book).
    >> Anonymous 05/06/09(Wed)23:15 No.4487268
    >>4487121 Consider this stolen.

    I second that emotion
    >> Anonymous 05/06/09(Wed)23:21 No.4487317
    It's hard to do, but what I went with was this:

    Do seemly random things with all seriousness. Don't do silly things, or lolrandom things, but do things quite random. What it they are are up to you, of course, but the thing to remember as well is to keep the rules written down. And then when the other players think they have you pegged in behavior, bend the rules. Don't break them, just add new ones.

    My character always insisted he had to wash his robes three times at night, first in soap, then in oil, then in molten wax. Once he had done this, he would wash them again normally, cleaning off all the oil and wax he'd put on. However, every 10+2d10 days, he wouldn't wash out the oil or wax and would proceed to sleep in the clothing and refuse to take it off, no matter what. The biggest thing was that I treated this with complete seriousness(and I never drew attention to it outside of the act of doing it), and I never said why he did it. They just assumed it was some form of protection.
    >> Adeptus Munitorum Magus O'Grady 05/06/09(Wed)23:22 No.4487319
    whisper. A lot. Never shout, rave, rant, or babble. Keep to yourself. Even in combat, never raise your voice. Always be scared of loud noises, and act like music, of any kind, actively hurts you.

    Always look nervous, and avoid touching anything of certain colors.

    Refuse to look up into the sky or to turn your back on any corner.

    insist on always being outside during a storm.

    pick a benign animal (mice, cats, squirrels, frogs, etc. ) and either respect of fear them. Leave them offerings. Treat them like royalty. If one of them is your familiar, act like it's the master and ask its permission to do things.

    Scoff disrespectfully at anyone praising the "feeble gods of the earth". and roll your eyes when priests start to preach.
    >> Dael'Rend 05/06/09(Wed)23:22 No.4487325
    Following my theme, my suggestion is to take up a 'warped architect' design. Get to carving intricate 'wards' and runic patterns in mundane places. If people stop you, dont make a fuss, just head out and provide your services elsewhere. You're not bound to be innately awkward, but could be totally batshit in the complexity of your schemes, perceived 'protections', and conspiracy theories.

    You could also have oft problems with the magics or creations of others, attempting to alter them to better suit a purpose only yoy can perceive. Flipping chairs, removing two legs, and nailing them to the table.
    >> Anonymous 05/06/09(Wed)23:23 No.4487330
    An alienist knows that the entire known world, all living things, and even our gods and supernatural beings are cosmically insignificant. They will all wither and die, unnoticed by the true powers in the universe. This might actually lead to a calm demeanor and a warm sense of humor. Nothing can get on such an alienist's nerves: not the screams of his victims, not the wanton destruction of reality, and certainly not the band of adventurers who kick in the door and try to spoil his fun. After all, none of it really matters, does it?
    >> Anonymous 05/06/09(Wed)23:31 No.4487418
         File :1241667088.jpg-(129 KB, 592x470, mouthofmadnessblue.jpg)
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    AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

    WORM THAT WALKS
    >> Anonymous 05/06/09(Wed)23:38 No.4487480
    You know, I always wanted to try doing an Abberant Druid of some sort.
    >> Anonymous 05/06/09(Wed)23:42 No.4487518
    >>4487330
    >>4487319
    >>4487317
    >>4487084
    >>4486712

    Add these together and you're good to go
    >> Anonymous 05/06/09(Wed)23:56 No.4487608
    I tend to play alienists as if they were completely dissociated from everything that defines a normal life and mindset. Laws and governments are mere mass hallucinations with no underlying truth or value, and likewise for cultural traditions and codes of conduct. Race, gender, country, and similar things that are important components of one's sense of personal identity are flimsy constructs meant to create a false sense of order, meaning, and belonging in a world where none of those things truly matter. The alienist sees the illusions of the world for what they are, a reality stripped of all pretense to reveal the perfect freedom and utter horror of chaos. They don't even do magic anymore, really, they simply exploit the fact that the laws of reality are no more immutable or inviolable than the arbitrary laws of civilization.
    >> OSU Anon 05/07/09(Thu)00:00 No.4487642
    >>4487121
    >>4487268
    Too bad, i'm pretty sure this is the idea behind the "Jade Statues" in the Malazan Book of the Fallen.

    ORiginal god, do not steal.
    >> Anonymous 05/07/09(Thu)00:05 No.4487685
    >>4487325
    This is cool. I could see a guy inscribing pentagrammatic wards in a furniture store or maybe a tiny runic series on the back of a hot-dog cart with a pen.
    >> Anonymous 05/07/09(Thu)00:07 No.4487695
    >>4487685
    dude, i do that for fun
    >> Anonymous 05/07/09(Thu)00:32 No.4487870
    First of all, read some Lovecraft literature (I suggest Rats in the Walls and Color Out of Space) and perhaps some Junji Ito manga (Falling is a good example for a quick read, maybe also Enigma of Amigara Fault[DRR DRR DRR]). This gives you an idea of how to give some human reaction to being exposed to things otherworldly.

    If you rather, I'll try to summarize what I think of.

    First, an obsessive compulsion with something mentally linked. Rats in the Walls has the protagonist following the sounds of rats scurrying into and below an occult altar room. Uzumaki has several individuals obsess with the shape of the spiral, twisting them to persue or avoid the shape. Enigma plays on the mental compulsion to put the square peg in the square hole, and fill the empty space. Whatever you choose, make sure it warps one's sense of priorities, and the thing should be abstract/not obvious to others around you (no impact if your teammates expect you to run off anytime you see something shiny or reflective.)

    Next, such a character isn't all there. Their mind is constantly distracted, or perceiving things not in the material plane around them. Similar to the previous point, however this can delve more into confusion and hallucinations. For example, when I had a shadowmancer in a game using the Taint system, he was plagued by the hallucination/ghost/psyche of an ex-BBEG. Funny thing was, this hallucination would vary between annoyance to being more disturbed by the surroundings than the PC. This is where you direct all your 'OH GOD FARPLANE' shit on. Your character just looks confusingly at this empty space next to him where he sees this goddamn goofball freakout at a block of cheese.

    Just picture that. You're sneaking through a kitchen, and all of a sudden, your alienest bolts upright and starts yelling OF COURSE ITS MILK YOU RETARD. Okay, maybe not something that potentially derailing, but you get the idea.
    >> Anonymous 05/07/09(Thu)00:44 No.4487943
    >>4487870
    Additionally, having the character KNOW this individual is a hallucination is hilarious. Farscape had 'Harvey', a parasitic copy of a BBEG's personality in the mind of the protagonist. The protagonist often would do his best to ignore 'Harvey', to the point of once mistaking the real BBEG for 'Harvey'. It wavered between comical and disturbing.

    The point of this method is to detach yourself from the strangeness, but still have it being an impact on you.
    >> Anonymous 05/07/09(Thu)00:45 No.4487954
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    >>4487418

    Wormskull here.

    Worm that Walks is a faggot.
    >> Anonymous 05/07/09(Thu)00:46 No.4487963
    >>4487685
    And then Alienist was allowed to Art academy.
    >> Anonymous 05/07/09(Thu)00:54 No.4488025
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    Learn to give occult speeches- the unnerving fervor and utter faith in unreason that real cultists have will add dramatic tension every time.

    If you can, learn to speak in word salad. It's incredibly hard to do without churning out comically absurd stuff. I've tried to master it several times, but i just can't get it right. If you could produce word salad at will I guarantee you'd appear disturbingly off-kilter.
    >> Anonymous 05/07/09(Thu)01:02 No.4488081
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    >>4487954
    No need to use coarse language, Mr. Wormskull.
    Tosser.
    >> Anonymous 05/07/09(Thu)01:04 No.4488103
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    >>4488025

    You no asking about *word salad*. Asking is *frumple*.
    >> Anonymous 05/07/09(Thu)01:15 No.4488190
    I take the angle of the multiverse being a bubble of stabilized potential within the Far Realm, which encompasses all potentials ever. As such, everyone is trapped within a very tiny box with a limited number of concepts to work with.

    Alienists and Pseudonaturals think outside the box, they use ALL the concepts, even the ones that don't exist in the Multiverse. Naturally, this can often have a destabilizing effect.

    Play the person entirely normally, but apply strange logic that none-the-less works. You use concepts and problem-solving techniques that don't synch up with the Multiverse, but they work, and can often work in situations where more conventional logic would fail.
    >> Anonymous 05/07/09(Thu)02:01 No.4488499
    >>4488190
    This sounds great combined with skill rolls. Make up something that has almost nothing to do with the object at hand, make massive jumps in logic, and then roll to see if you get it right. If you do, then your knowledge of the far realm has proven useful, if not, then your mind's far too scrambled to make sense of what's in front of you.
    >> Anonymous 05/07/09(Thu)02:20 No.4488584
    >>4488499
    >>4488190

    This idea really has potential if the DM will roll with it.

    Streetwise check to find an item in the city? You walk three times around the graveyard counter-clockwise and stumble over it lying on the ground.

    Diplomacy check with the merchants guild? You stand in the middle of the room hissing violently. Inexplicably the merchants began to stack up the things you need and accept payment from your friends, they later have only vague memories of the event.

    Perception check to notice the ambush? Your natural twenty means that you r neck bends to an impossible and grotesque angle behind you and you involuntarily let out an animal scream, alerting your party to the danger.
    >> Anonymous 05/07/09(Thu)02:26 No.4488616
    >>4488103
    It is *squeezing the juice* and then we must *dance*. Perhaps they are *campers* here for *picnic*? We can slip *many fingers* *inside* and then they are *orz* too!
    >> Anonymous 05/07/09(Thu)02:34 No.4488657
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    Thought of this one while writing my last comment:

    Synaesthesia is a good psychological disorder for an alienist.

    It can manifest as sense overlap or switching in some cases, especially if we combine it with some arcane flavor. The character will lick and eat a letter instead of reading it, gaining full knowledge of its contents in the process. The character will smell sounds or feel tastes. Can you see the heavy-robed alienist at a ball, grasping at the air to touch a scent as a courtesan with heavy perfume walks by?

    Assigning personality to objects and concepts is another great symptom of the disorder. Rather than saying that "Sunday is too late to leave, we'll never make it there on time" you explain "Sunday? No.... she hates us already, she'll interfere with our journey if she sees us on the road. No, we have to leave tomorrow to avoid her!"

    I can see lots of fun antics if the alienist assigns personality to the group's weapons. The character could generally reverse causality between people and objects. Constantly assigning praise and personality to the fighter's sword and ignoring the fighter, for instance. Or always speaking as if it is actually objects that control people to use them and get things accomplished, not the other way around.

    Wow, those do sound fun to play.
    >> Anonymous 05/07/09(Thu)02:36 No.4488670
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    ravel puzzelwell, from planescape torment

    hard to do right, but if you manage it, you'll certainly unnerve *me*
    >> Anonymous 05/07/09(Thu)02:37 No.4488674
    >>4488657
    I might try that, actually.

    The sense one would take some DM approval, though.
    >> Anonymous 05/07/09(Thu)04:24 No.4489218
    I had an idea about this. The person touched attracted the attention of something like a group of scientists. They are content to sit back and watch, for the most part, but occasionally ask him questions. As he at some point in the past noticed them, so they feel free to ask what the rogue is doing to that chest. Only he can see them, until one day he hisses to something he can only see "Not right now, I'm busy," and one of the party makes a listen or spot check and notices very faint footsteps moving away and through a wall. Barely audible at all, or if in snow or dust, very faint footprints as if something was interacting very weakly with reality. After that, little things crop up, a painting on a wall rattles slightly and everyone looks towards it, only he rolls his eyes and sighs in annoyance. There is really somethng there, only he can see and interact with it. If they party tries to get information from it, it will leave. It always comes back though. If done carefully, the rest of the party could end up paranoid about the little things they notice, as that could be HOW he ended up with it following him around. It isn't malicious or anything, it is just studying him, and by extension the rest of the party.
    >> Anonymous 05/07/09(Thu)04:31 No.4489246
    Idea
    There is a humanoid outsider that follows the Alienist around, observing the Prime Plane and commenting on it, on how it wants to actually be there, to find out what 'touch' is, or get to try and experience 'faith' or 'emotion.' Give this entity a mind and heart of stone, with only one want you can even understand: it wants to take your body from you.

    So as the game progresses, the alienist makes secret rolls, matching his will against the creature as it periodically tries to rip his mind out and take the alienist's body for its own. As time passes, these rolls go from laughably easy to nearly impossible.

    So the Alienist starts confident, sure that this new source of power for himself is no threat, and slowly loses that surety. Slowly, he becomes more frantic, distracted from the parties goals as he worries about how to preserve his mind from this eldritch being that stalks him, tirelessly trying to steal his form. Near the end, the player should start displaying strange behaviors, like eating knowledge (consumes written texts to learn from them, yet can also now chomp on stone, so long as it is a tablet with writing or such on it)

    And eventually he regains his composure. Sure, he does the wierd behavior traits even more now, but he has an interest in the quest again, and when asked he tries to keep his stranger quirks quiet.

    And then, some time later, the party, for whatever reason, needs to travel to a plane very far away, some nameless and nebulous place, to fight this euclidean being that threatens to do... something. You aren't really sure.

    Only when you get there, the creature in question is half crazed, barely able to move with more grace than an infant new to its form, that, if given the chance, slowly croaks out something like:
    's...ss...ssooorrryy. Iiiiiiiit beee-bee-beeeeeaaaat mmeeee. Hheeeeeeeelp meeeeee!'

    And that is when the Alienist's behavior changes a very great deal.
    >> Anonymous 05/07/09(Thu)04:32 No.4489247
    General idea:

    Someone who is influenced by Far Realm stuff is likely to find themselves more comfortable with that stuff, but conversely more uncomfortable with "normal" stuff.

    In the same way that sailors, have sea-legs, and so feel sea-sick while on land.

    So the character feels queezy around normal stuff, and okay around weird shit. To combat this (since the majority of the world is "normal") the character attempts to craft items which have weird geometries, so that they can feel comfortable. They live in a house with no right-angles or parallel lines etc.
    >> Anonymous 05/07/09(Thu)04:51 No.4489312
    Speak/act weirdly, but in a totally logical (at least from the characters perspective) way.

    Examples:

    Refer to single objects in plural.

    Speak about other peoples actions in first person, but about your own in third.

    Mix up cause and effect.

    Find weird metaphors for the things around you.

    In mid sentence stop and repeat the last three words several times over than continue normally.

    Ask party members if they also hear the singing voices.

    Run away in horror from a mundane object.

    Obsess over some other object.

    Catch living creatures and eat them - works best if you can get your hands on some maggots and remark how delicious they are.

    Insist that everything red is black and things that are normally black shine with a blue light.

    Develop personal quirks. Maybe before you can enter a building someone must invite you in?

    Pick up some painting skills (the character) then paint Gigeresque or otherwise horrifying things and insist on showing them off to people.

    Pick up something normal and stare at it in bewilderment for several minutes before asking a party member what the hell is it. (It is a spoon for example.)

    Etc.
    >> Goatjaw Stinkteef !!taqDd9490Ip 05/07/09(Thu)05:03 No.4489337
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    >won't need eyes.
    >> Anonymous 05/07/09(Thu)05:06 No.4489349
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    >>4489337
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UmzYR4IQ_kM
    >> Anonymous 05/07/09(Thu)05:15 No.4489379
    >>4486134

    Or play a Republican.
    >> Goatjaw Stinkteef !!taqDd9490Ip 05/07/09(Thu)05:16 No.4489381
    >>4489379
    Oh Yay. Topical.
    >> Anonymous 05/07/09(Thu)05:29 No.4489437
    >>4489381

    More than you'd think. They've spent years and years with claiming that they've seen the horrors beyond the american borders and are bound to protect everyone from them. At the same time they regularily deal with the people who cause these horrors on a very intimate and personal level.
    >> Anonymous 05/07/09(Thu)05:49 No.4489501
    >>4489437
    Cool story, bro.

    Now stop shitting up the thread.
    >> Anonymous 05/07/09(Thu)05:54 No.4489512
    >>4489437
    Yes, they serve alien and remote entities which they claim talk to them, and make random demands and insistences on the whims of their lords. They have a strict set of rules they follow, which mysteriously change every day.
    >> Anonymous 05/07/09(Thu)05:56 No.4489516
    >>4489512

    Sounds like any politician ever, to me.
    >> Anonymous 05/07/09(Thu)05:57 No.4489523
    >>4489512

    That's what a politician would be, if elections were held every week.
    >> Anonymous 05/07/09(Thu)06:23 No.4489640
    >>4489246
    I love this idea just for doing my favorite thing:

    Making the BBEG a PC.
    >> Adeptus Munitorum Magus O'Grady 05/07/09(Thu)12:52 No.4491287
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    Someone mentioned synesthesia, and that's a good start. Have the character refer to basic stimuli in odd ways. "It feels very purple in here." Purple meaning cold. Establish a list of common stimuli and how the character describes them.

    Also, confuse colors a lot, as if the character sees everything painted with emotional stains. Looking at an Aloe plant: "No, we need to find an older one with more silver in its leaves. That one is too young." Look for rules on auras and seeing them.
    >> Anonymous 05/07/09(Thu)12:54 No.4491306
    Be unable to differentiate races from each other, or even types of animals. Once you've glimpsed the horrible beauty of the Far Realm and caught even a flash of what lies there, who cares or can tell really that some people have pointed ears and some people are shorter than the pointed eared ones but still have pointy ears, or that that four-legged animal is a dog or a lamb?
    Have weird dietary tastes. Perhaps you won't eat anything that was grown from the ground, or only eat raw meat, or cut your hand with a dagger and bleed onto your food before eating it. Maybe you've just forgotten what food and drink is alright to ingest eventually.
    Man, coming up with these are hard. It seems very easy to stray into "LOL I AM SO CRAZY AND RANDOM"
    >> Anonymous 05/07/09(Thu)13:05 No.4491375
    Suggestions from a psychology student.

    Cotard's Syndrome / Capgras Syndrome.
    The character does not recognize places /people he used to know. Instead, s/he believes that they have been replaced with impostors, look-alikes, clones and such. And he always refers to familiar places like "being very similar to his home" and so on. He treats everything/everyone as an approximation to the real thing, or an impostor.

    Alternatively, make your character believe that nothing, NOTHING stays the same as time passes. I mean like Heraclitus, only more so. Example:
    "Hello buddy!"
    "Do we know each other?"
    "We met two hours ago..."
    "Oh, but that was your past you. Who are you now?"

    or

    "We have to get back to the village"
    "What do you mean, get BACK? We have to go to a village we've never seen before!"
    >> Adeptus Munitorum Magus O'Grady 05/07/09(Thu)13:15 No.4491435
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    >>4491375
    interesting. What's the name of that one condition they featured on CSI/law-and-order/one-of-those-generic-cop-dramas, the one where a person doesn't believe in mirrors and thinks reflections are separate people, never recognizingthemselves?
    >> Anonymous 05/07/09(Thu)13:30 No.4491549
    >>4491435
    Actually I have never heard of it. It sounds a bit too much to be true, but it might just be my ignorance.
    Anyway, a good source for "crazy" behaviour and strange syndromes/symptoms can be "The man who took his wife for a hat", by the great Oliver Sacks. Some examples:
    -Being stuck in time, having lost the ability to form new memories. You're stuck in 1946 forever
    -Losing proprioception, the ability to sense the position of the parts of your body. You feel like you are disembodied... imagine closing your eyes and not feeling anything

    Yeah I guess it could be too much for roleplaying, but you could pick one or two symptoms and RP them according to your need.
    >> Anonymous 05/07/09(Thu)13:41 No.4491627
    If your group ever uses background music in your games, make your character capable of hearing it. He hears it all the time. And occasionally he hums along quietly to himself.
    >> Anonymous 05/07/09(Thu)13:52 No.4491691
    The OP would do well to find and read some of the issues of "Parasyte".
    >> Anonymous 05/07/09(Thu)13:55 No.4491708
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    >>4491435
    >> Anonymous 05/07/09(Thu)14:04 No.4491760
    >>4491691
    This.



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