Assuming a player of average skill...

>sexual identity disorder
>not fishmalk territory

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>Tfw friends with enough rape victims to be able to rp mild ptsd well enough

>Tfw low level autism gives wide role play opportunities

Why is the text so low on that shirt?

How good is the average roleplayer?

I think that split personalities could work. Have the player have two character sheets for each personality, each having a different class and skill set, and have the switch be initiated by something mundane. Also have the "main" personality not realize his own condition and look at people like they're crazy if they try to tell him.

You tuck the "is my life" part into your shorts' waistband.

Congratulations, you've done the exact opposite of what the OP asked for

Greetings, South Africa

A friend of mine is unable to play anything but paranoid schizophrenics. Lets be clear here, HE THINKS he is playing reasonable sane characters with no mental illnesses.

Well, there's the fucking problem right fucking there.
We're twenty years out from the nineties. Most people have never seen a goddamn Fishmalk. Yet they're still used as a boogieman so that shitty GMs have an excuse to hit people in the head with the DSM4 for even blinking in the direction of mental disorder.

Even if Fishmalk became the accepted term, I feel like AD&D started the ball rolling with that sort of behavior with the Chaotic Neutral alignment and unlike Fishmalks the 'lolsorandom' interpretation of Chaotic Neutral is never going to fully go away.

From my experience, chaotic neutral is less "lolrandum" and more "Please, I don't want to play with alignments, why are you forcing it? Is there an alignment that just means I can do whatever I want without artificial limitations? Well, fuck you"

Well when op Says an "average" player I think of someone who has had enough experience to make at least a somewhat interesting character. So I would think that if an average player were to make a character with a split personality, then they would go towards the direction of something not "LELSORANDUMBXD" and go for something more engaging or interesting.

you apparently missed the part where OP said
>without venturing into fishmalk territory
because that is not how split personalities work

I fucking hate this artist.

He's absolute shit and known for tracing but ignorant plebs love him. He's the bieber of art.

One of the most important things to remember about insane people, is that they fundamentally do not percieve the same world as the sane.

Schizophrenics often talk of hearing "voices", like people whispering nearby, or behind their backs. The thing is, they actually ARE hearing voices, insofar as their brain is bugging out and inventing audio stimuli that don't actually exist outside their head.

That's what you need to focus on if you play an insane character - how does their perception of the world differ from that of the sane, and how will that affect their behaviour? And you need to keep it consistent; if your character insists that they're actually Martin Luther King Jr. reborn, or that their pet Rubik's Cube is urging them to kill, they need to stick to that delusion as hard as possible. In the former case, they should try to adhere to Martin Luther King Jr.'s personality and behaviour as closely as possible. In the latter case, they need to try and keep ol' Rubie a secret, so as not to arouse suspicion.

>Oh shit, I think Trevor knows... no, no! We can't do that! That'd be horrible!
>...you mean? Hmm...
>No, no, you're right. No witnesses...

Depressive characters are not fun to play as or play with, so I've learned to avoid that after trying twice and failing both times. I do think that schizophrenia and paranoia can be fun as long as the DM wants to play along since you need their cooperation. I storytell for a game with a schizophrenic PC and I've started handing him notes saying that things are watching him and slowly seeding hallucinations into his parts, it's fun. Most average PCs have kleptomania, so there's that. Hoarding would also be easy.

I imagine that antisocial characters are often accidentally played(murderhobo-y), but those could work as well, as long as the group is willing to get really dark. PTSD of the war variety should be doable for a player willing to do some research and learn about people with it. Rape and abuse PTSD should only be done if you really really(like, seriously really, PTSD is too common to assume, apparently) know your group and only if you research a lot.

Drug addiction is also another common one, though it may take some dedication to blow in game money on drugs that don't help their stats, so I'd really only suggest it if roleplaying is a focus and in game money is not strictly counted. Same for addiction in general.

I think a non-murderhobo/non-powergamer player could do a functional psychopath. I've even heard about a psychopath special forces guy or maybe a psychopathic businessman. And by functional, I mean that they aren't secretly murdering people and have found non-murder/rape ways of dealing with their psychopathy. Sociopath's could work similarly.

Some posters are mentioning autism, but like depression, it forces the other players to play babysitter and that can be tiresome and ware on a group. I do suppose it could work if it was mild autism though.

There's always gender dysphoria and not the trap-fuccboi kind.

multiple personalities would probably only work if the main one was the stat'd character and the others just, wouldn't know about the powers. Also, the other PCs should probably be able to coerce the main personality to come out as to not constantly stop the game for their shit. I'm pretty sure that people can ask people with multiple personalities to bring one of the other personalities.

Schizoid personality disorder - social behaviour is not necessary unemotional or disinterested, just somewhat insincere, fixated playing a certain 'role' to a degree that behaviour comes across as off or forced in certain situations. The character uses that kind of behaviour because he/she is incapable or afraid of forming real attachments, but still wants to 'fit in'.

I also forgot about amnesia. It could be fun if your GM likes making player backstories relevant and would be willing to make it up.

I tried anterograde amnesia once(basically 50 first dates memory). It might have worked if the storyteller was more invested and the other players were more motivated. But it was sort of difficult for the other players.

Anything a player has experienced firsthand, or secondhand through a close relative/friend.

I personally would avoid heavy depression. It's a pain in the ass that clashes heavily with the adventurer lifestyle.
Bipolar disorder could work pretty well if they actually know what being manic is like. The other players would probably hate you forever though.

Conservatism.

Schizophrenia can actually be easily played without going fishmalk. You just need to realize that in real life one of most common forms of schizophrenia is paranoid tinfoil hattery. Just watch shit like Alex Jones and make a similiar conspiracy theories for your character.

Hi Sven!

He has nice renders. And you're aware tracing is only when you literally put the photo/other work under what you're drawing, right?

I fucking hate this user.

He's absolute shit and known for bitching but ignorant plebs love him. He's the bieber of posting.

Quite honestly, none.
Genuinly roleplaying a mental illness without one is very hard, and geuinely quite depressing. I wouldn't wish it upon a player of only average skill.

Well, bar mania and sociopathy.
But those are common to players anyway.

OCD

>The thing is, they actually ARE hearing voices, insofar as their brain is bugging out and inventing audio stimuli that don't actually exist outside their head.
not necessarily, I remeber some research that concluded that a schizophrenics brain has issues with the the t I ming signals that let your auditory centre know that you're talking. when it goes wrong they don't percieve hearing themselves talk as their voice. So their brain concludes its someone else.
At times they are the voices in their head.

...

"Normal players" is a somewhat nebulous group. The only time I've seen it work out was when a friend played a schizophrenic warlock, and the rest of us didn't realize it until he started mentioning beings that the wizard (who had spent decades literally living in libraries) had never heard of, and when some good attack rolls missed by a mile (he was attacking enemies the rest of us couldn't see, all coordinated with DM)

We had one guy make a psychopath after taking an abnormal psych class—and I mean actual psychopath, as in ASPD rather than some stupid "KILL ALL THE BABIES" bullshit. Another guy did PTSD, which I later found out was partly influenced by his uncle who worked with/fought under MACV-SOG in some unexplained and probably classified capacity.

As much as I hate to give this useless answer, it depends widely on what you mean by "average skill," along with knowledge of/experience with the illness in question.

I am deeply confuse after reading that.

>WoD: Vampire, clan Malkavian
>Derangement: Delusion (Religious)
worked like a charm

PTSD. But I may just be saying that since both of my parents are veterans with PTSD, so I know what it looks like.

>Bipolar disorder could work pretty well if they actually know what being manic is like. The other players would probably hate you forever though.
Could someone elaborate on this please? I don't know anyone who is bipolar so no first-hand knowledge of it.

Manic stages are like being coked up. Everything is brighter, better, the world slows down around you. Everything can be done.

Pretty much this. I've briefly dated girl with BPD, which is similar, but significantly "milder" condition than bipolar.
The differences between her highs and lows that usually came for no apparent reason and without warning were unbelievable. And her self-medication didn't make them any better.

Ok, cheers. That original comment makes a lot more sense now.

here's your upvote

Look up tulpa. IIRC, they're supposed to be thoughts and emotions given form only perceivable to the creator. Several years ago they were a more prominent topic of discussion in places like /x/ and other miscellaneous sites (maybe still are, I don't frequent those areas). Usually anons would talk about making their tulpa waifu and trying to fuck them, which often led to funny stories. There's also a lot of creepypastas about tulpas.

Sounds like split personality or something like that.

Reminds me of the popular Tumblr trend to have headspaces, not just with fake people you make up, but with fictional characters like Loki from the Avengers movie. Headspaces are basically multiple-personalities, but with an added touch of snowflake. Apparently the other people in the 'headspace' could communicate with the main person. It was a whole mess of crazy.

Average player skill is pretty low, so in general I would avoid any character with a mental illness serious enough that they'd be diagnosed or treated in real life. Good roleplayers can do a lot more, but certain conditions (schizophrenia, DID, ASPD) do not make good party members and even if roleplayed correctly are likely to derail games. Those sorts of disorders should always be avoided.

>the must reductive pop psych versions of complex conditions
Yeah, it's easy when you do it badly, but OP's point is to not be fishmalk. Hence, not do it badly.

This pretty much, except it's not super obvious.
It sneaks up on you slowly and then suddenly you find yourself laughing hysterically at something that's not even particularly funny and you realize "holy shit I'm manic as fuck right now"
It can last anywhere from about a day to a few weeks to several months at a time. I managed three months in a row once (followed by 6 months of depression because fuck you). It also varies in intensity. It can be really mild to the point where you're just locked in a permanent good mood, and it can be so intense that sitting still is literally impossible from all the excess energy and enthusiasm.

Other telltale signs are sleeping with everything that moves, spending all your money all at once to buy shit you don't need and probably won't even want once the mania tones down, and getting extremely excited about things to the point where you just want to scream for no reason and start talking to yourself because nobody else can be fucked to keep up with your conversation.
Basically it makes an absolute pain in the ass, so you'd better be sure your party is ready to put up with your shit.

Oh, and keep in mind that mania does not make you do things you would otherwise be entirely against. A faithful cleric isn't going to renounce his religion and defile a temple to his god because "mania lol". It does make you more willing to act on repressed desires though, so if that cleric had always secretly hated his religion because he was forced into it, then he just might.

one my of my friends and her dad is Bipolar. he was undiagnosed for most of his life so has a few interesting stories of "episodes". one time he went to work and just decided he should start bossing his boss around.
My friend herself seems to have managed it a lot better. I've only seen a few outbursts that until she told me she had it just seemed like regular mood swings if a bit extreme.

The difference here is that if the DM thinks your conspiracy theory would make for a good story then it'll wind up being true.

Or just read up on /x/ for a bit.

. . .

Fuck.

What?

Paranoia or sociopathy
That said, by 'average skill', I assume you don't mean in their ability to roleplay... it's not exactly quantifiable.

>sleeping with everything that moves
>spending all your money on stuff you don't need

I wonder if I could get my room mate diagnosed.

If I had to guess, that user recognized the symptoms as pertaining to his life.

I have schizoid personality disorder, so I suppose all my characters are schizoid, to a certain extent. I feel like I can overcome it though. Everyone is playing a character in a tabletop environment. It is sort of a relief.

To roleplay paranoid schizophrenia all you need is a die.
Roll for wheter something is gonna trigger you or not and react accordingly with overwhelming fear and anger or baseline character personality. Also remember the same stimuli can cause different reactions each time you're exposed to it.

Bipolar would be harder because you'd have to chose wether you're manic or depressive every morning and nightfall, prevent other players from resting because you're insomniac but not attentive enough to hold camp guard duties, and almost certainly kill yourself in a fit unless your condition is subjugated by medicine or magic.

Borderline Personality Disorder.

youtube.com/watch?v=iraGmA7-9FA

It's perfect for a murderhobo.

I played a paranoid schizophrenic Malk who ended up becoming diablerist Batman.

Now that we're on the topic of tumblr and it's love for romatizicing mental illnesses: Anorexia.

I've got a player who's character has a split personality and it's really damn annoying. I don't know what to do about it since it's the 2nd character he's done it with.

One time he had a character who developed a 4th personality and at the end of the sitting he says "I don't know why they took that one seriously" oh but the other three were completely understandable?

Now he's a player for me and its the same shit. He wants to use it as part of his character, developing it through the game and I think that's fine except that when we actually started playing all he does is self enforce rolls which I don't really know about what he's doing only to break character to let the other players know that they're 'lucky' that he didn't roll well.

While we're on the topic, another player has a drug addiction and he uses it as an excuse to get high and be lolsorandum. I picked these guys because they're normally great. Maybe it's just the first sitting that makes them do this.

>Your average player has a hard time playing someone without a mental illness consistently without venturing into cringe territory.

>I think a non-murderhobo/non-powergamer player could do a functional psychopath.

Well, psychopathy is defined as including:
>extreme self-confidence
>poor impulse control
>demand for immediate gratification
>poor behavioral restraints
>defiance of authority
>use of cruelty for personal gain
>lack of fear
>lack of empathy
>lack of close attachments with others
and of course
>destructive excitement seeking

So I would say most players are roleplaying psychopaths already, whether they know it or not.

>BPD[...] is a similar, but significantly "milder" condition than bipolar
What the fuck. I'm not going to argue with you what your girlfriend had, but if that's the impression you've gotten from her you're fucking lucky, because it's nothing like BPD at all.

I think PTSD would be doable. Just define
>what shit gave you PTSD
>what would remind you of it
>how would you react to that stimulus. Do not make it HTF "flip out and murder everything".
Then have character consciously try to avoid things that he'd expect to remind him of it.

For example how you can bring down a stereotype to playable
>HTF: resin in the campfire reminds him of guns and he flips out and kills everybody
>Playable: he twitches, drops what he was holding, but after a moment composes himself and swears off at the party for forgetting to check the branches, then digs up his earbuds to shut it off

Fun fact for the weabeoos: BPD is the original, real-life "yandere" disease. The most accurate, positive depiction of it you're likely to have seen is in the character of Misaki Nakahara from Welcome to the N.H.K, but fundamentally, all yandere characters exaggerate the exact combination of personality traits for which persons with BPD were known and loved/hated/feared, including by people who don't actually know what they have and just consider it their "fucked up personality".

BPD is an extremely broad condition which can "manifest" in a lot of different ways, sometimes to the point of making it hard to diagnose (the guy sleeping around and then feeling suicidally bad about it may have BPD just as much as the girl who drinks and drives in the hope that her boyfriend would prove his loyalty again and again by coming to save her), but "stereotyoically", no behavior says BPD more than falling literally insanely in love with someone after knowing them for half an hour, striving to spend every moment of every day with them, bombarding them with worried (then angry, then desperate) messages if they ask to be alone for a day, growing simultaneously more and more obsessed with the idea that they are perfect and you don't deserve them AND that they are playing with your feelings and you hate them, threatening to kill yourself when they get creeped out and ask you leave them alone then eventually blowing up violently on either yourself or them when you can't take it anymore.

Basically BPD means life is an emotional rollercoaster and you're trapped inside a hamster ball rolling on the tracks. In this sense, I'd say in reference to BPD can appear to be even MORE severe than bipolar disorder because BPD persons don't have "phases". They can literally switch from "I wish this moment never ended, my life would be good if you only let me hold you in my arms forever" to "grab their head and bash it against the wall in screaming rage" in a matter of the blink of an eye.

I'm the only one in my gaming group with a diagnosed mental illness, and I'm the GM.

As GM I've had trouble trying to handle mental illness or let players portray it in good faith for years now because of an event at the table a few years back.

One of my players at the time worked at the local mental health hospitals while he was studying for his his psych masters. I sent the player characters to a run-of-the-mill "creepy asylum" for one of our sessions because there were rumors of ghosts there, and I thought it would be fun to have the players interrogate the people locked up there as an rp opportunity. I hadn't caught how uncomfortable the one player was when I had them enter the asylum, but he spent the entire time glaring at me as I played up these really goofy hollywood style paranoid schizos and split personality serial killers and stuff. He basically disengaged with the whole session at that point, just listened and gave the barest imput, which caught me off guard since I thought at the time this would be the session where he got to do his "thing" in a more comical context.

After the game I asked him what his problem is and he went off on how hard it is for people like the ones he works with when shit like that is the public perception of how they behave and how hesitant the stigma makes people with serious problems to seek psychiatric help before it becomes a danger, and it's a conversation that always stuck with me because he was usually the most chill player at the table but this was apparently the one political thing he actually cared about and he just looked and sounded so fucking disappointed in me

He had to leave the group later that year because of scheduling conflicts but we still hang out sometimes so it wasn't on bad terms and it's not like he held a grudge. But I always cringe whenever people talk about their characters being "crazy" or suffering from PTSD or whatever now because I feel like he would be judging me hardcore for letting that fly in my games since he's a professional in that field now.

Certainly enough for me to try and go see a specialist about it.

Special snowflake mentions:
>Cotard's Syndrome
The character believes themselves to be dead, and thus immortal. People with this often die of starvation or dehydration because dead people don'd need food or water
>Synesthesia
Pick two senses, these are now linked. You can taste sound, you can see smells, etc. Could be interesting.
>Alien Hand Syndrome
To be honest, this is more lulrandom than anything else. Your hand occasionally disobeys you, but while doing so you can't feel it.
>Pica
A compulsion to eat things with no nutritional value.
>Capgras Syndrome
You believe that everyone in your life has been replaced by a double. Belief that these doubles have malicious intent, optional.
>Fregoli syndrome
The opposite, you believe that strangers are probably just people you know in disguise
>Todd Syndrome
Also known as Alice in Wonderland Syndrome, episodes are characterized by the sufferer's sense of body image, space, and/or time being distorted.
>Body integrity disorder
You believe you have one too many limbs/fingers/extremities and will not be satisfied until it is gone. Thing is, once it's gone, the disorder doesn't just move, you are actually cured. voluntary amputation is the only known cure.

>Fregoli syndrome

I really liked that film.