Help! My Character Did Something Uncharacteristic!

[QueenBethari]

A few nights ago, I was RPing as one of my favorite characters, Dr. Joseph Schmoe. I like to think of him as a chaotic neutral guy, but I made him say something that could only be construed as evil. (More specific details in the spoiler.) What do you guys do when your character does something uncharacteristic? How do you take back control?

 

Thanks in advance!

 

Spoiler

Okay, so Joe Schmoe is part of a group of incompetent villains. He's a mad scientist who thinks Arachnos are the good guys and that the Paragons are in league with the 5th Columnists. Also, he's obsessed with monsters.

Anyway, our GM assigned each of us a lecture topic for a hero convention in a third world country. (The story line is complicated.) Dr. Schmoe was assigned the topic Doomsday Weapons on a Budget: A Practical Approach. At the time, I was thinking, Oh, no! My character carries an assault rifle, but he knows practically nothing about weapons! So, I had my character mutter, "You don't need doomsday weapons when you've got human sacrifice." After I typed it in, I realized that was way darker than I envisioned my character. I want him to make tinfoil hats, not war!

 

[MetaVileTerror]

I've never been one to be able to maintain a PG-13 or lesser rating mindset when it comes to my roleplays.  I've tried, and I've failed time-and-again.  I am also adamantly against the "Alignment Chart" or "Alignment Spectrum," and adhere to a more socially flexible understanding of ethics and morality as they apply in given pockets of culture.  So, I don't know exactly what you're going through, but I will say that I've sometimes been shocked about what a character I'm roleplaying does or says.  Sometimes my characters aren't who I really thought they were.  Sometimes they change.  Sometimes social pressures or other stresses causes them to act out of character.  Just like real-world people.

If you feel something is particularly bad, you can ask your fellow roleplayers for a retcon.  I find most people tend to be pretty accommodating to that.  Or at least I actively surround myself with the types of roleplayers who are accomodating, anyway.
But mostly I just examine what the character said or did, and ask myself:  Is this a fluke, or is this the sign of character growth?  If it's the latter, I consider what I can do to make the transition enjoyable for myself and the other roleplayers I'm with.  Sometimes it can even turn in to truly compelling story arcs or on-going plot elements.

[Greycat]

People are people. You did something uncharacteristic? Congrats. You were the nice (or neutral) person who had a bad day.

 

*shrug*  That's how I look at it.

 

Either that or, given your example, maybe it was a smartalec tongue-in-cheek comment or bit of dark humor.

[Moka]

Sometimes characters develop in ways you don't expect them to.

[MetaVileTerror]

Any update on this, Queen?  I'm interested to hear about how you tackled it.

[Flashtoo]

On 12/25/2019 at 6:11 AM, Greycat said:

People are people. You did something uncharacteristic? Congrats. You were the nice (or neutral) person who had a bad day.

 

*shrug*  That's how I look at it.

 

Either that or, given your example, maybe it was a smartalec tongue-in-cheek comment or bit of dark humor.

^^^^^^^^^^^

 

Coming from someone who has great experience in crippling overthinking: You're overthinking. One single uncannily-dark statement does not an alignment shift make.

[QueenBethari]

On 12/25/2019 at 11:29 AM, MetaVileTerror said:

Any update on this, Queen?  I'm interested to hear about how you tackled it.

We haven't had a guild meeting since, I don't think. Everyone's probably forgotten by now. XD

On 12/26/2019 at 6:33 PM, Flashtoo said:

^^^^^^^^^^^

 

Coming from someone who has great experience in crippling overthinking: You're overthinking. One single uncannily-dark statement does not an alignment shift make.

Thanks, @Flashtoo. And everyone else who's responded! It's really helped me put things into perspective. 😄