Anti-social Players and Characters

While writing my previous post, something occurred to me that I've been meaning to write about for some time. In most RPGs, and most notably in D&D, there seem to be certain character types that cause problems: the evil PC, the Chaotic Neutral PC, the Assassin (regardless of alignment), the Rogue or thief. And, indeed, the Paladin. In Vampire, Malkavians were almost notorious. And so on and so forth.

My opinion on all of these is pretty straightforward: in all cases, it's not the character that's causing the problems, it's the player. After all, the character has absolutely no life or agency of its own; everything it does is as a result of what the player chooses. (And, indeed, I have no truck with a player using the excuse "I'm only playing my character" for this very reason: you chose to play that character and you chose that course of action for the character. If either of these is proving to be a problem, choose differently.

Besides, I've seen examples of most if not all of these character types played without them causing a problem. The problem lies not with the character type, but in the specific example of that character. Not all Paladins are lawful-stupid jerks. Not all Rogues feel compelled to endlessly steal from their fellow party members. Not all Malkavians relentlessly destroy the mood of the game with their wacky hijinks. And so on.

Ultimately, it boils down to this: your antisocial character could be of the mould of Wolverine or Jayne Cobb - he's an ass, but he's an entertaining ass who actually makes the game more fun for all the other people at the table. Sure, his antics cause you hassle, but in a fun way. In which case your character, and you, are welcome at the table - anything that adds to the fun time everyone has is a benefit.

Or your character could be a destructive sod who would be promptly driven from the group, if not killed outright, if he didn't have the magic 'PC' sign over his head. You might be having a good time, but it comes at the cost of other players getting upset or angry, or otherwise not enjoying the game. As a result of you being there (and playing that character), the amount of fun at the table is reduced. That's a problem.

(Needless to say, this isn't motivated by anything that has cropped up at any game I've attended recently. If for no other reason than that there haven't been any.)