The Ultimate Guide on Improving Insane Roleplay

[Volke]

The Ultimate Guide on Improving Insane Roleplay (Insane RP) (16)

(This Guide Comes From Chernarus EXTRA Issue #1) -  Colored to emphasize different sections

Compiled By Volke

Written by TheGlassSpider, Joffrey, Murdercool, Roach, Great Khan, Sunshine, MistikRaven & Mickey Jonas (Bjon)

Shoutouts to each and everyone of them – I've spoken to each and everyone one of them and asked for their thoughts. This guide is the result of their efforts. Thank you for your support!

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An ongoing issue in the community has been people’s portrayal on Crazy or Insane RP. According to MistikRaven: People fear what they don't understand for the most part. Fear is a very strong emotion that often drives people and "crazy" is not mainstream, it's not a fad and it certainly is outside of the box. They may also fear it because the particular RP they've witnessed was not necessarily up to par either. Such a style of RP that so few people can pull off correctly - we’ve asked some of the most well-known Crazy roleplayers for their thoughts and recommendations to improve Crazy RP.

According to Roach, the first thing you need to ask before you even start planning this style of RP is:

Am I ready for this? Too many times, people that just joined DayZRP will have tendencies to play as a bandit or a crazy as soon as they start. DON'T! My advice, start playing a regular survivor, get to know your environment and the community along with rules before any hostile or crazy characters are played. Eventually, you will feel when you are ready to move up. It's going to take a lot more than 1 or 2 months of role-play in my honest opinion, unless you spend 20+ hours a day here.

If the answer is yes I am ready for this then the next question that follows: Should I start playing right away? The answer is No! You should have some work ahead of you before going in there. First off, PLEASE, create a credible story for your character and try to avoid being unoriginal. Why does he/she have this illness? What are the root causes for the problem if any? Was he/she in a mental institute or was this character living a relatively normal life before? But you'll need to know a lot more about the illness then just common sense and what you "think" it is. This is where people often make the mistake. I studied schizophrenia for 1 month. From Wikipedia, to YouTube bloggers to documentaries both written and on film, I checked it all out. Even had a nice friend that suffers from this illness, help me and guide me a little with this character. Heck, I even put my headphones on and used a schizophrenic simulator audio track ALL DAY, woke up with it and went to bed with it. I kid you not! It was truly an experience I won't forget and helped me better understand what I was about to play. Learn what you play! Behaviors, Medicine, Dosage, History and so on...

So let' start though: Let's look at the first question – What is Crazy RP?

Crazy RP is defined by many to be a standard of Strange RP. Habits include random laughter, talking to invisible people or other issues. TheGlassSpider helps us define what is Crazy RP. The first thing we need to agree on is this:

-There is NO SUCH THING AS CRAZY – clinically speaking. For the purposes of RP, it’s also incredibly vague. “Crazy” has no symptoms, no guidelines for you to follow for acting it out. Do some research, choose an actual diagnosis, and find out its symptoms from the DSM.

The DSM V is the most current version and can be found online here: http://www.terapiacognitiva.eu/dwl/dsm5/DSM-5.pdf. :

Now,

Once you have your symptom profile, then begin figure out ways to translate those symptoms into the RP. After all, it’s one thing to ‘know’ in your head that this is what your character has, but quite another to be able to express this RPly to other characters without just coming out and telling them (something a number of patients might be unlikely to share unless necessary).

MOST ‘crazy’ people are NOT violent. Those who are violent are often more self-destructive than destructive to others. In fact, many avoid contact and relationships with most others, having small numbers of trusted friends, or even none, as these are usually the areas that their pathology and symptoms impact the most. The ‘psycho killer’ meme is, in reality – QUITE RARE. Clinically speaking, we don’t have psychopaths or sociopaths (clinicians mostly stopped using that terminology in the 1970s). Roach goes on further to discuss the argument - “Are all crazy people violent?” - Absolutely not! There are 2 sides to explain here (the Crazy and The Regular). To the regulars, we often fall under the impression that if he/she is crazy, that person is going to kill you, torture you, eat you and so forth. It's a very stereotypical way of seeing mental illness. Not all crazies are... well crazy. These people are misunderstood in most cases and the aggressive role-play provided towards a crazy can actually create the monster. In a lot of cases, people in real life live with a mental illness and are apart of society today. They function very normally with regular people with a few minor exceptions. They are not monsters until you make them become one. To the crazies, you don't need to go around killing, eating, torturing other people. That's not what crazy always means. Crazy means acting different, hearing things and sometimes losing a bit of control on sanity which does NOT always result in hostilities. You must remove from your set of mind, that killing and torture is a MUST as a crazy. Because it's not.

Now that we have defined what Crazy RP is and how they act, let's give some overall suggestions. The skeleton for the guide comes from Murdercool , with added points from others.

My tips on playing a character that is “crazy/insane/deranged”

1. Firstly think about your characters strengths and weaknesses. What they fear the most? What excites them. What drives them forward to carry on living?

2. Create a realistic character background that makes perfect sense as to why they are “crazy” you can't just make a character crazy for the sake of it.

Great Khan explains this further: I think if you truly want to get a good basis and understanding on how to be crazy, you have to ask yourself, why is your character crazy? Did a traumatic event occur in his life - the death of a loved one? What was it that marked the road to insanity? It's the previous life of your character which will cause his future reactions. In terms of my character, being brought up in care did not help. He was bullied etc, but these did not mark the road to insanity. I won’t go through my whole backstory, but Thomas’ road to insanity began when he was living on the streets in Chernarus. Starving and thirsty, it led him to do mild irrational things. The man relating to this whole story, Ivan Aksakov, who saw his actions on the street, promised him a home: Khasavyurt. The events that occurred at this place and the promise of a good home drove him to madness. His isolation from Society only increased this. Being surrounded by crazy people in the Asylum also only increased his insanity. I think it is these events, events that don’t happen to most people, which change the viewpoints of your character.

3. Think about what kind of person you character is. Commonly people believe you have to 'nasty' to be a crazy character. You can be quiet, loud, friendly or hostile. It's just how you execute the performance of the character, not how he treats people.

Great Khan explains this further:  Many newcomers think the thought of crazy means screaming, shouting, giggling, whispering and doing random things for no reason at all, but this is not crazy to me. I would categorize crazy as someone who has an abnormal reaction to an event/occurrence, to the extent whereby it is deemed strange by others. If I use my past character, Thomas, he saw fit to ban the use of all medication when witnessing Doctors. His reaction to this comes back from Khasavyurt Asylum (look into lore for more detail). His past in the Asylum, and time with the Father radicalised him to becoming ‘Crazy’, but it did not mean he went around saying random stuff, harming people for no reason or just shooting everyone. What it merely did was change his views upon normal occurrences that happens in the world. Another example, if not Doctors, would be his reaction to people mistreating the Maker. His firm believe on this God and time with the Father meant anyone disrespecting this God, meant they were disrespecting him (as he was a firm believer). His upbringing with the Father and the Family began to get him well accustomed to methods of punishment deemed satisfactory to react to normal situations such as this. I suppose this is what makes him crazy and it is merely only intensified by being surrounded by other people considered ‘crazy’.

4. Create the voice of your character.  The best crazy characters I have come across usually use a fairly average voice. Experiment by reading lines from plays or movies in different voices that you'd think would suit your character’s personality. After speaking with Joffery – he had more input on this subject.

“

First and foremost this is a audio and visual experience. To maximize any effect you want your character to exude, you must sound the part. When you talk; make weird and subtle gestures while RP’ing. Anything to make your character “stand out” among the throng of stand-still and talk RP’rs.

For the audio side: Pick a voice that suits you. 90% of how your character is perceived is through your voice. You can look really creepy/ruined but if you sound annoying no one will want to hang around your character. Talk… slower…. more pronounced… it … gives more weight….  to what.. you're saying…You don’t need a deep voice, just make sure it's cultured and strong. Something people will remember. Keep these tips and mind and you’ll be well on your way to having a character that stands out, and will be remembered!

Roach also adds to this opinion: This one is tricky since to try and make yourself somewhat an obvious unstable person, we all have tendencies to talk weird or creepy because it feels natural. I sort-of did this with Eddy Beck, at first he spoke normalish and as time goes by, his voice becomes shaky and unstable. But you don't have to do this at all. In fact, I think the scariest crazy type is the one that seems as normal as they come. Norman Bates (Psycho Movies/Books) was a schizophrenic that never ever sounded weird except from when he thought he was his own mother obviously. It's what he said and did that empowered his craziness into others.  But if you're going to use a voice, try to make it believable and not trollish.  You can use your own voice but make it sound shaky a bit or scared or plain creepy. It's up to you on this one.

5. Avoid going over the top. No one enjoys a character that is exaggerated far too much. Especially if you're playing a cannibal.  The best cannibals never mention the fact they even eat humans. Stay away from repeatedly screaming "I want to strangle you", or anything aggressive and 'crazy' on those lines.

Roach touches upon this topic further: Do not make your character an obvious crazy and be all up in your face about it. This one bothers me a ton and I am sure it bothers lots of players out there. Be steady about it. Don't just tell people you have to take pills because you have a problem in the head and if you don't you'll go nuts and kill everyone! Give them faint signs. You can create a ladder of feelings for your character. Sort of normal, a little tense, nervous, anxious and delusional and so forth. It's a much better feeling for the random role-players you encounter to discover your illness after a long period of time with you. The element of surprise is the best. Take your pills in silence (DO NOT EMOTE IT IF YOU'RE NOWHERE NEAR ANYONE'S SIGHT). Please don't, they do not see you and thus should not even see an emote of this. Just hide, take your pill and come back. They will eventually catch you thus creating an RP situation that can go a lot of ways. You don't want people to know you're crazy! Common sense for a person suffering of such illnesses.

6. Do some research into your character's “disability” for example if you want to play a schizophrenic character take a look at the symptoms before charging in game and roleplaying a character that is still in development.  TheGlassSpider goes into great detail here:

Speaking of personality disorders, these become a problem for patients at a young age. The same goes for the infamous Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID - formerly known as Multiple Personality Disorder), which is also – realistically – quite rare. So rare, in fact, that until the 1990’s many practitioners did NOT consider it a diagnosis at all. If you were over the age of 6 when the outbreak began, it did NOT cause a personality disorder or DID. If your character has one of these, their backstory should include it prior to the outbreak.

Another couple of disorders that are more likely to occur at a young age are Schizophrenia and Bipolar Disorder. These most often begin in adolescence (although some rare forms of schizophrenia can have adult onset).

Some disorders and issues that likely could have been caused by the trauma of the outbreak would be PTSD, of course, Major Depressive Disorder (MDD), various forms of anxiety and phobias, addictions, some Somatoform Disorders (the patient’s symptoms manifest as a physical disorder, but are not, and the patient is NOT malingering or intentionally lying), and complicated grief.

Even the craziest patients usually have times during which they are somewhat normal, or ‘baseline’ – when they are healthiest or committed to treatment, they can, in fact, carry on conversations, hold jobs, have meaningful relationships, etc., and then – unfortunately – have episodes during which their baseline degrades over time. Most patients do not suddenly have episodes, there is often a trigger or a decline (with some forms of mania and schizophrenia, this is not always necessarily the case, however).

Although ‘crazy’ people might be irrational, there is often some sort of skewed logic behind their actions that is consistent with their pathology (their symptom profile). This is why “my character is crazy” is a badRP excuse for IC reasoning. It’s fine to have specific, consistent triggers; it’s unrealistic to be triggered by everything, or insulting people. It’s fine to have instances of violence; it’s unrealistic to react to everything violently. It’s one thing to be delusional, but most people with delusions have delusions that are consistent thematically.

Some Crazy I’d Like to See

Actually RPd out PTSD – as common as this disorder would be in the apocalypse, I don’t think I’ve ever seen anyone actually RP it out fully. PTSD is characterized by flashbacks (I’ve never seen one on the server that I’m aware of) and a heightened, persistent fight or flight response.

Various forms of amnesia – there’s more than one kind, and most of it doesn’t involve a complete memory wipe as I’ve seen before. With anterograde amnesia, the patient cannot form new memories (so they might remember everything up to the age of 20, but not be able to form new memories after that date – this person might wake up EVERY DAY having forgotten that the apocalypse had happened). Retrograde amnesia is the most common, and occurs when people forget most or all of their past (this is often temporary and parts come back). Lacunar amnesia occurs when a person loses memory of a specific event (repressed memories often fall here).

Agoraphobia – the fear of open spaces. Quite problematic for someone in Chernarus, I’d expect.

Panic Disorder without agoraphobia – recurrent and unexpected panic attacks, seemingly without triggers.

Obsessive Compulsive Disorder – can you imagine needing to wash your hands nine times every time in the apocalypse? There are ALL sorts of irrational things one might be obsessed with and compelled to do. If at any time the patient was unable to fulfill the compulsion, their anxiety and irritation would increase until they could engage in their comforting obsessive ritual.

There are also all sorts of very subtle disorders that I think would be interesting to play or see such as:

Pica: a disorder usually diagnosed in childhood that makes the patient want to eat inedible things. Typically the patient has a desire for one or two strange things. Patients with Pica most commonly want to eat dirt and paper, although some extreme cases involve eating glass.

Transient Tic Disorder: basically this is an uncontrollable motor tic (like a facial twitch, or arm spasm), but it tends to be inconsistent and doesn’t always ‘tic’ in the same place. A little like Tourette’s but physical and without the inappropriate vocalizations.

Somatoform disorders: these, as mentioned earlier, are physical symptoms that are the result of a mental problem, but the patient is unaware that the symptoms are not due to a physical cause (like a virus). A hypochondriac has a somatoform disorder; they often believe they have any disease that they hear about or are even remotely exposed to, and are often quite resistant to the idea that their problem is mental. Imagine a character who was SO convinced that they were not immune to the infection that they started manifesting some physical symptoms of the change. Probably not a long-lasting character, unless RPd with a partner who knows the deal – but fun.

Suggestions for Learning and Immersion

My biggest suggestion for learning how to play crazy is to visit crazy people. Mental institutions and outpatient day centers often need volunteers, and very little will inspire your RP (and give back) more than actually interacting with them.

Barring that, there are some good films to watch.

For Antisocial Personality Disorder watch: One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest (keep in mind that Jack Nicholson’s character does NOT in fact have a mental illness, he’s just a criminal trying to pass, but most of the others in the ward do); A Clockwork Orange; Pink Floyd – The Wall; Manhunter; Cape Fear; Silence of the Lambs; Cape Fear; Natural Born Killers.

For Dissociative disorders watch: The Three Faces of Eve; Psycho; Sybil; Never Talk to Strangers; Fight Club; Never Talk to Strangers.

For those suffering from unspecified delusional and psychotic disorders watch: Misery, A Beautiful Mind (good for Schizophrenia as well), In the Mouth of Madness, Donnie Darko.

For Depression (MDD) watch: What Dreams May Come, American Beauty, Prozac Nation, House of Sand and Fog, The Butterfly Effect, Little Miss Sunshine.

Also regarding Disorders - we received an interesting letter about Blood Drinking from Mickey Jonas:

“Right, so lately I’ve noticed something that honestly rather annoys me, and it’s the fact that there seem to be many new partakers of the essence running around these days. Wasting it carelessly and being so uncultured with their hobby that it makes me want to drain them myself. But it’s dawned on me that rather than going through all the trouble of finding, acquiring, and rehabilitating these bottom feeders; I thought it would be a much better idea to condi- educate those of you who feel the urge to drink from another rising within you.

So, before you even think of letting a drop of warm essence touch your lips, let us go over a few questions you should be asking yourself. First, what makes you crave the essence? Does it help ease your miniscule mind as the feeling of another’s life-line glides slowly down the back of your throat, or are you in it just for the taste? Perhaps you just think it’s, ugh, “cool” to drink from another. Well if it’s the latter I’m going to ask you to stop here and kindly drown yourself in the nearest body of water, at least that way you won’t be wasteful when killing yourself.

Honestly though, I don’t know why I’m wasting my time with you all to begin with as most people who have a craving for the sweet, red nectar of others have suffered from Renfield’s Syndrome for most of their lives. Oh, what’s that? You don’t know what Renfield’s Syndrome is? Jesus, you really are a bunch of neophytes. Basically, it’s the proper term for clinical vampirism, although anyone who partakes on the essence and refers to themselves as a vampire should honestly just have their tongues and teeth removed, that way they’ll no longer be an embarrassment to the rest of us who try and maintain at least a sliver of culture and professionalism.

But yes, as I said before, most of us that are subjects of Renfield’s Syndrome have been afflicted with it through most of our lives, often starting with our own essence, slowly working our way from partaking on ourselves, to feasting the blood of animals. Then if you really find yourself craving something more… exquisite, then you may finally work up the courage to try the essence of another. Although, few ever really go that far, or they tend to rush things and end up vomiting all over themselves, wasting everything they just partook. Yes, that means you won’t be drinking liters of the stuff. Hell, an ounce might be too much for amateurs such as yourselves. Even after years of conditioning my stomach, I can only consume maybe half a liter of my Alyssa’s sweet, nurturing essence before my body tells me I’m getting greedy.

So, the next question you should be asking yourselves is, what blood type do you prefer? Do you prefer having your donor, subject, or victim to consume a certain type of food or narcotic before you partake on their essence? If you tell me you don’t have a preference, or that all types taste the same, I highly recommend you cease all consumption of any foods and beverages as it’s simply going to waste keeping you alive.

Everyone tastes different, and their blood type is a huge contribution to the flavor as well as what foods or drugs that person or creature has consumed. I myself enjoyed my donors being completely clean before using their essence to quench my thirst; I also highly enjoyed a fresh bag of B negative. Although B negative is indeed somewhat rare, it still seems nobody in this damn country is blessed enough to be carrying that type within them, and don’t even try to offer me an AB negative. Honestly, people of that type always taste appalling and are wastes of human life.

Right, the next major question is how do you plan on acquiring your essence? Now, if you simply wish to drink from yourself this can be disregarded, but those of you who wish for the sweet, yet bitter taste of others on your lips, you should carefully consider your options. Take myself for example, before finding my Alyssa and feasting almost solely on her, I was easily able to acquire the essence of others simply by offering my services as a medic. Hardly anyone questioned me during that time, especially when they were on the verge of passing out, or in extreme pain. I honestly miss those days somewhat, ah memories, like sheep to the slaughter.

Now, sometimes their state of being can alter the flavor somewhat, which is one big reason why you should consider obtaining essence carefully. If you simply point a gun in someone’s face and begin draining them, the fear and anxiety they’ll be experiencing will have an effect on the taste. Now unless you find yourself enjoying a much bitter, coppery, saltier beverage, I would suggest you approach procuring their nectar with a bit more tact and finesse. Sometimes simply asking politely is enough for most of the gullible idiots out there to offer up their own life essence. Hell, sometimes they don’t even ask why, although that may be because of my occupation as a medic and rehabilitator, but it always tickles me slightly at just how naïve my fellow humans can be.

Now, what else, hmmm… well, I suppose I could give you greenhorns a few tips on consumption. If you have just recently procured a fresh, warm bag of essence from some unsuspecting schmuck and you can’t wait to have a taste; simply take a canteen that you should already have on hand and slowly and carefully pour it into the container, being extremely careful not to spill or waste any. You should also make sure that the canteen is empty before doing so as to not dilute your newly acquired essence and ruin all the subtle flavors. After you’ve filled your canteen you’re now free to drink your beverage right in front of the poor sap you just drained and they’ll be none the wiser, unless you let some spill down your chin… ahem, yeah, keep an eye out for that.

Another point to make note of is to make sure you either keep your essence cold, or it will spoil and coagulate within a day and by that point all the flavor is lost and you’ve wasted yet more perfectly good essence. And that is one point I cannot stress enough, which is being wasteful. I see so many idiots out there who think they know and respect the essence, spilling it all over, throwing it on and around themselves, letting others bleed out needlessly, it’s absolutely disgusting. Those of you who wish to be a connoisseur of any sort should quickly understand just how wretched the act of wasting essence is, and should severely punish those caught in the act of doing so.

If you absolutely must bathe in the blood of your enemies, then I simply suggest finding a shower or bathtub in a house somewhere, clean it out exceptionally well, and then hang your victim or victims over the tub for about 10 minutes to let all the essence rush to their head. Then carefully being slicing their throat, having almost every drop of theirs fall into the tub below and allowing you and any possible partners who partake to have a nice, warm, and fresh bath of essence to enjoy. Just make sure your victims don’t piss themselves while they bleed out, lest they potentially ruin a perfectly good bath.

Now, I could keep going on and on about how you’re all most likely too uncultured to appreciate or even properly enjoy the essence, but I think it’s time I wrapped this up. Oh, and if you see me out there roaming the countryside, do not approach me and start telling about all the things you’ve done to people and the different types of essence you’ve tried. You are and always will be below me, and I also loath show-offs.

Well then, hopefully this reaches a few of you out there and now hopefully we’ll have less idiots being careless and wasteful with the essence they’ve obtained. But for now I must bid you all farewell.

Toodle-loo, everyone.”

Strange letter indeed, regardless let’s continue reading.

7. Play around with the tempo of your character. If you're character is hostile then steer away from being predictable. Crazy role-play should not be predictable in my opinion. I'm not saying you should switch the “crazy” on and off just play around with the intensity of it.

8. Look at the morality of your character. Not all crazy people have no morality whatsoever. Play around with the levels of morality, your character may or may not have. One moment they couldn't have a care in the world the next they're on the floor crying because they've killed someone in a firefight. I don't believe all crazy characters should be without morality. Some people use morality with a combination with Religious RP.  Great Khan goes further into this explanation.

A lot of people may use this as an excuse to act crazy. Your character has a set of beliefs which he wishes to enact, so why can’t he? If this is the case, feel free to do so, but don’t overplay and focus on being “crazy”; burning people, laughing all the time (don’t do crazy laughs all the time please), threatening them. Remember your character is not solely crazy - there are other traits to him/her. For example, within Thomas, he had extreme care and love for his Family, like any other normal person. He also had common sense and I like to think some brains thus knowing when he should enforce a crazy belief. If you think about it, all crazy people have many other traits other than being “insane”. I am sure while they may hallucinate and be scared at times leading them to perhaps doing horrible things, there are others times in life when they are kind and considering. I personally think if you get the thought crazy into your head, you also need to consider other aspects and sides to your character.

9. When creating relationships with people think about the impact of their behavior on your character's behavior. For example if you meet somebody who's very nice then they may have an effect on your character. If lots of time is spent with them without any hiccups so to speak, maybe that would improve the character's behavior. “Crazy” characters can form attachments as much as normal characters. Sunshine touches upon this :

First off, I’m so, so, so, so sincerely flattered that Volke asked my opinion on this!

xoxoxoxoxoxo

The best RP comes just from genuinely connecting with the other player, emotionally and mentally. That’s when I have the most fun, at least. And I think that when you’re doing crazy-type RP there’s a temptation to focus on performing rather than RP. That’s a mistake. For myself, crazy-type RP gives me the chance to connect in an unusual, fun way, and it allows me to be a bit more creative, but honestly…a little cray-Z goes a loooong way. Crazy-type RP HAS to be emotionally-intelligent.

You have to be able to relate to the other player, ESPECIALLY if you’re doing crazy-type RP. Connections can come through a heart-to-heart talk, torturing or kidnapping each other, you know, whatever the RP invokes, but the most important thing is to LISTEN to each other. The best characters make me curious about them. I wonder what they are thinking and planning. I wonder about their motivations, and I can UNDERSTAND their motivations, even if I don’t feel the same way in-character. To me there’s a huge difference between acting and role-playing. And role-playing is SO much more fun! I like when people don’t try to impress with their RP, they just act like their in-character self and they let the conversation develop rather than play through a script of sorts.

10. And Finally, consult people you've role-played with. Even if you believe your RPis where you want it to be, there's no harm in hearing other people's suggestions. This can indicate whether people are finding your role-play too “uncomfortable” or “over the top” it's always good to get feedback.

Hopefully these tips and suggestions assist you all to improve, your deranged RP skills!

[Guest Roach]

Ultimate indeed. Pre-read this in the Chernarus Extra.

I know I wrote part of this, but the others involved did an amazing job as well.

This is THE guide for crazy roleplay Good job everyone !

[Volke]

Ultimate indeed. Pre-read this in the Chernarus Extra.

I know I wrote part of this, but the others involved did an amazing job as well.

This is THE guide for crazy roleplay Good job everyone !

That was the goal - the ultimate guide for insane rp , I think color-coding it should help people read it so it doesn't like a wall of text

[Storm]

I had a quick read through this yesterday in the newsletter. The effort put into this is just insane see what i did there?

Hopefully people will actually take the time to read this as it covers pretty much every type of insane character. Job well done!

[Volke]

I had a quick read through this yesterday in the newsletter. The effort put into this is just insane see what i did there?

Hopefully people will actually take the time to read this as it covers pretty much every type of insane character. Job well done!

Nice meme

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OP updated with hyperlinks to accounts of those who added to the article!

[Luca]

Good Job everyone

[Vaine]

Good thread folks

But damn that rainbow

[Chinchilla]

So you're saying I can't just find a payday mask and run around laughing and eating people?

There goes my next character....

Seriously though, good read and much appreciated. Easy to see a lot of work went into this, very well done.

[Ellie]

The effort put into this is amazing. I'm sure a lot of people will benefit from this. Great job everyone

[Vandy]

What a read.

Nicely done. Still havn't finished it yet, but thatnks for taking the time to create this!

Nice work!

[TheGlassSpider]

Wow! It really is a joy to see so many folks coming together to create this guide, and the result of all our collective experience is s pleasure to see. There are so many useful tips and ideas here.

I really must thank you, Volke, for inviting me to be a part of this. I love how you've taken all our ideas and made a giant compendium. We truly are more together than we are apart.

Great job to everyone involved, and I truly hope this is helpful for the community!

[Stagsview]

Spoilers would help out a little volke in making it easier for the eyes.

But besides that, a really great job you have done here!

I will try and send you mine as soon as possible...If you still want it....my exams are crazy atm.

[StriderV]

What an excellent guide, respect for everyone who wrote that thing.

Comprehensive and very detailed.

[Murdercool]

Nice to see this getting its own thread. I love how everyone's contributions click in together nicely. Well done everyone who contributed. Thank you for asking me to contribute Volke.

[Oryx]

Thank you so much for asking my input Volke!

I learned so much reading this! Joffrey's advice is really direct and specific. Especially with the voice tips! TheGlassSpider's input is so educational and realistic. You know way too much,  woman!  Roach's tips for new players is dead on, and Khan's advice is so socially intelligent.

And Mickey you scare me

[Volke]

Thank you so much for asking my input Volke!

I learned so much reading this! Joffrey's advice is really direct and specific. Especially with the voice tips! TheGlassSpider's input is so educational and realistic. You know way too much,  woman!  Roach's tips for new players is dead on, and Khan's advice is so socially intelligent.

And Mickey you scare me

Hope you enjoyed it ^-^

[Craig]

This was helpful, my character is growing and changing with each new experience and this post has helped allot with things I now know I am doing right and some things wrong. I think Ive only ever bumped into one of the people that helped write this (Joff) and its great to learn from the more experienced RPers on the server.

Happy Gaming - A.

[Foxi]

Great job with this guide!

Too many people seem to try making characters that are insane but dont know how to go about it.

If I ever decide to make an insane character I'll defiantly use this guide. However I see that ever happening, not my cup of tea.

[TheGlassSpider]

Thank you so much for asking my input Volke!

I learned so much reading this! Joffrey's advice is really direct and specific. Especially with the voice tips! TheGlassSpider's input is so educational and realistic. You know way too much,  woman!  Roach's tips for new players is dead on, and Khan's advice is so socially intelligent.

And Mickey you scare me

Really glad you enjoyed it! I think the overall piece came out great. 

As for knowing too much: Naaah, I'll NEVER know enough ;-) That's part of the fun!