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This is just something I've thought about lately and found rather interesting. My first role playing started around 6 years ago when I joined a D&D group. It was a group that was comprised of players that had been playing since they were like 10, and needless to say they were freaking awesome. Me, being totally awkward still with the whole idea of "acting" in character, defaulted to the comical. I made an old a** goblin cleric that was practically Yoda. That campaign ran for about a year, meeting for 6-8 hour sessions once a week. By the end of it, the characters had become so developed and so intertwined that to this day I believe it was the best RP I have ever been in. When one of our crew members got killed, it literally made everyone choke up. (Ya, imagine a bunch of nerdy college guys getting choked up about someones fantasy character. LOL)

Now I find myself choosing drastically different characters in every RP I get involved with.

I was just musing over my progression from something comical due to insecurity, to many chars of the same archetype because I felt comfortable with it, to the current day where I play drastically different chars in everything I do. A cynical little healer girl, a charismatic bard, a cowardly druid, a focused warrior, a money hungry merchant, I've done them all and keep choosing new things so I don't get bored.

What traits have you seen in role playing and the evolution of its players?

Indeed! Character flaws are really important for making a char that is interesting. But one thing I've noticed that can be a problem is what I've taken to calling "crippling flaw" syndrome. A character having distinct strong points and weak points is a given. In games like D&D that is done FOR you. If your a mage and some rogue gets up behind you, your pretty much boned. If your a beast of a warrior, you probably aren't the greatest people person. And having other odd quirks can be fun too. I had a cleric once that was extremely knowledgeable, basically a scholar. But every now and then I would roll a d20 to see if he tripped over his own feet, because he was just really clumsy. I liked throwing that little flaw in there.

But "crippling flaw" syndrome is when you get those characters that have some issue so volatile it forces them in to main character status. The entire story starts revolving around them. Like if you have a character that has some grievous emotional wound that makes them really paranoid about women. Next thing you know their flaw is dictating how the entire group handles large scale situations, because god forbid "crippling flaw" goes ballistic and murders the NPC lady you are doing a mission for, or blows your cover in the bar your supposed to be gathering information at because some drunk chick flirted with them. Whats REALLY bad is when you get multiple of them. Then you have multiple people muscling for who's flaw is dictating the scenario, and the whole group is so dysfunctional over all that the game just becomes laborious.

I've come to learn that one of the most important roles in an RP is being the "normal" person. You can't have an entire group of people with serious dysfunctions. It makes playing obnoxious, and more importantly to me, it's totally absurd. For every person in the world that has schizophrenia or has genuinely tried to commit suicide or was molested as a child, there are 10 more people that had totally NORMAL upbringings, and continue to lead normal lives. Such people have their own problems, but nothing too dramatic. And if you do have the "crippling flaw" characters around, it makes them stand out more. So it makes play more fun for them too.

Gondin is actually a refreshing spin for me. I thought about it, and I realized that one thing you almost NEVER see is a character that's just straight up content. His parents weren't murdered in front of him as a kid. He isn't a half demon that spent his whole life being shunned. He doesn't have a crippling injury. He's had a good life. He stands out more in my mind than a lot of my characters because of it actually. xd

Oh, and relating to the "parents murdered in front of their eyes." thing. Talk about a pattern in role players. What is up with people killing off their parents? XD I swear, 9 out of 10 in depth backgrounds find a way to kill off the characters parents.