Are MBTI types good for character creation?

Are MBTI types good for character creation?

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Who? What?

No

it' says nothing about how your character responds to moral dilemmas or how he apporaches an issue.

to a degree neither does alignments but this fix is 10x worse than the 9 alignment "fix".

not to mention that theres already a problem with players using their background or class as an excuse to not take part in roleplay and adding shit like ISFP is just to make that issue twice as bad

As good as the classic alignment system.

Every time I do an MBTI test, I end up with a wildly different result. Doesn't make me confident that it's worth a damn.

I don't understand

You think you can't tell how an introverted person who focuses on immediate sensory input that prioritizes facts over feelings and with a judgemental streak wouldn't behave in a situation?

when I take the test I either get ENTJ or ENTP and it usually lines up between when I'm focused or unmotivated.

the only person I know who gets random results is my sister who infamously lacks any self-awareness or ability to reflect and think critically so it's a red flag for you as a person and not the personality test.

MBTI has been the most popular test for decades for a reason.

That's interesting, as I'm quite introspective and work in tech support (at the level where systematic critical thinking is required). The variation in results might possibly because of the spacing between tests, now I think about it; first one I did would have been in my late teens, which came out as ENFP. Later ones would have been after university, which put me through the wringer a bit (I think the results were INTP, then one I can't remember.)

well you got ISFP wrong but on top of that

Introverted doesn't mean shy, it means that social interaction drains them so being introverted wouldn't mean "lol my character just sits in the corner judging everyone"
lots of bards could be charasmatic yet introverted so it adds nothing but depth that wont effect how the game is played.

S and N could be decent but something tells me that no one is going to pick N and then think hmm my character wouldn't really have very high passive persseption.
N thinks of possiblites while S keeps his mind in the room. both of those could be considered great for something like insight so again it doesn't tell you much.

F and T mean nothing in the game seeing as an F can just as easily be very appithetic while a T being understanding yet not use his feelings to sway his judgement. it's the least telling of any of them. many smart people are F and many average people are T.

P and J is the best of the 4 J makes plans and tries to stick with them and P wings it.
but a P doesn't mean "I hate plans" it just means they are more willing to act outside of a plan if they think it helps and less likely to contruct a plan themselves.

this system WILL be misinterpated and will over all make each character way more static and boring.

the solution to the allignment problem isn't to replace it. it's to ignore it and as a DM try to keep your players from controdicting their character.
it's the hardest thing to do as if someone wants to murderhobo or try to react in the best possible way despite what their character would likely think and do there not much you can say to discredit them as they know they're character best.

the only problem I have with this system is that every test I take gives me a different answer. I've gotten INFJ, ESFP and ENTJ all from the same test before.

As valid as horoscopes

first time I ever done a test I was ENFP and I was too and I was 15 years old. they can change over the course of a month.

best thing to do is aim for what type of person you want to be.

I made fun of ISFP a lot and then one of my friends got it and said he wouldn't ask for any other result. so everyone has their sweet spot.

>best thing to do is aim for what type of person you want to be.

That introduces all sorts of error right off the bat though; as an example, I'm fairly weak willed in conversation with others and find it difficult to put forward and defend controversial views, but I'd want to be otherwise. Who I am and what I'd like to be are very different things.

I wasn't describing any MBTI type in particular

Maybe I'm just missing the point, but isn't "aiming for what type of person you want to be." completely contradictory to what is essentially a personality test?

It's basically just a vague guideline to help figure out broad paths your character might take.

As far as indepth characterization goes there's no better guide than real life.

MBTI is flawed, look instead to tests based on the "Big Five" traits

long ass piece of shit post coming

that has nothing to do with
E I
N S
T F
or
T P

that’s just how assertive or turbulent you are and it's the hardest thing to change about yourself. every test I've done in my life I've been stupidly high on the assertive levels and though years of trying to chill the fuck out I'm still pretty fucking high.

I imagine it's harder the other way around too.

I'd say find some people who don't chimp out when you disagree with them and take time on a conversation to get your point though even if you turn out to be wrong. because of the internet it's easy to find the truth without arguing about it. if you can't be right then express why you thought that way.
besides there’s nothing wrong with not being assertive.

being more extroverted or learning to be introverted is hard but can be done.

just have a drink with friends and when you get home stay up. if you stay up and reflect on it the energy comes back to you and you learn to handle people without feeling drained yet at the same time being extroverted is like being co-dependent. people feel exhausted when they are isolated and high on the extrovert scale. these people need to chill out and read a book or a wiki article or something.

S and N are easy to change.
if someone is talking if you want to become S then stop thinking about the hidden meaning behind what they say and pay attention to their facial expressions, you'll get just as much information that way.

F and T is also easy
when you feel bad and want to react on it stop and think what’s logical. if you're T and find it hard to connect with people then it's likely self-inflicted and you just need to ask people how they feel and then draw from your emotions and act on that.

J and P are hard
trying to set a schedule can be hard and learning to chill out when things don't go your way is hard too. just learn to see when something needs planning and when something doesn't.
trips need planning, dates don’t.

Well considering this personality test encapsulate EVERYONE but only a very small number of a very particular kind of person would actually be a D&D adventurer unless absolutely forced to I'd imagine things would end up very lopsided.

not really, it's just reflective, people change and actively being aware of who you are and how you opperate can help you change.
your personality isn't set in stone.
it's not a horoscope.

certain peronality times do better in different enviroments. you may want to change from a INTP to an ENTJ to get a promotion or something or a ENTJ to a ESFP to save a relationship.

Well, they're better than chaotic/lawful good/evil, I guess. At least it's a more rational indication of how a character will behave, and a more useful guideline when trying to keep a character cohesive.

>not really, it's just reflective, people change and actively being aware of who you are and how you opperate can help you change.

This doesn't address user's point at all. In fact, you've just waffled around it. One's personality being in flux is completely irrelevant; if you're taking a personality test to find out what kind of person you currently are, it's pretty fucking essential to answer it honestly based on what you are, rather than some nebulous ideal of who you'd like to be. Hell, most MBTI tests explicitly tell you to give the unvarnished truth; what the fuck are you on about?

Honestly the more this conversation continues, the more convinced I become that you're absolutely full of shit. You put me on the level of your idiot sister for pointing out an extremely common issue with the MBTI (low test-retest reliability), and when called out on the outright unscientific approach you take to answering the questions of the test you're so determined to promote, you just brush it off with some feelgood self-help bollocks.

It's not a bad idea, I do run my characters like ISTP alot. Mostly cause it's what I always get, so I know how it thinks. Leads to fun scenarios.

but I never implied that you're meant to answer based on who you want to be. I just implied that you can use the result to measure where you are.

the mbti is mostly just autistic shit people use to justify themselves but can be used to either better understand yourself or measure how far you are from the type of person you want or need to be.

again personality isn't static, expecting your personality to stay the same when your life changes is unrealistic. it doesn't matter if you think it's false, there are a lot of people that dismiss sociology in the first place so it's not like it's based in the hardest of sciences and there probably is a lot of improvements to be made on it. my point is it can be accurate an useful to measure who you currently are at the time of taking the test yet is greatly ineffective if you don't really know how to answer the questions due to uncertainty.

not getting the result you want to be doesn't mean its wrong if that’s what he was implying.

the test is the best there currently is (that I've used myself) so I vouch for it.

hate to be a "thats your opinion" guy but on this topic you can only really give that answer when you get so far into debate about it. it's polarizing.

all I can say is it's not fair to compare it to horoscopes. the MBTI is based or research and years of it on top of that and has been tested and peer reviewed.

that doesn't make it 100% correct but it adds legitimacy.

TL;DL: thats just like your opinion bro, like I respect your argument but I think it's wrong because thats not like how I feel about it.

>persseption
>appithetic
what the hell user?

Its not flawed. It has a specific use and purpose and people like to take it out of those boundaries.
Like a lot of things, its user error but not user blame.

MBTIs are just the zodiac for autists.

Ignore this man. Look to astrology for the answers you seek.

Anyone can make an MBTI test and call it legit, and they do. There's a truck load of shit out there that's just based on the author's dumbass opinion of the kind of people the types are. There is absolutely a sub-culture that treats MBTI as ScienceZodiac like mentions and it's annoying as fuck. THAT SAID, legitimate tests exist, tests based on the original ideas of MBTI, and I think they're worth finding and doing right. I am entirely unnerved by how spot-on accurate my type was for me, and I've taken a lot of for-fun personality tests in my life. This was the first one that kind of made me step back and put some weight on it.

What really really sold it for me was when I found a few little communities of people with the same type and discovered I had a lot in common with them outside of the test results. Struggles, talents, frustrations, vices; similarities way beyond what I've ever had in common with even the closest friends.

This is the test I took and I recommend it to anyone who's interested: 16personalities.com/free-personality-test
Their methodology and trait labeling is consistent even if their characterization of the types are a little narrow.

As for the OP
No, it's much easier to shape personality via backstory than to contrive a backstory from a personality.

>take test multiple times over years
>INTP every time
Dunno why other people get other shit so often, always seemed reliable to me.
Not that I use it for anything besides funny stuff like this, if it's entertaining enough.
Though...
>Excellent clarity of thought
I goddamn wish, I've got some kinda minor alzheimers tier memory issues. With just enough clarity to realize I'm missing huge holes in my memory 90% of the time.

>Always an ISFP, literally always.
And I love it. Death to the extroverts though.

Here you go kiddos.
16personalities.com/personality-types

Lets play a fun game. Put a mythical race or faction to a type

>16personalities.com/personality-types
Looks like I'm an INFP. I'd say it fits. I don't see that one mentioned very often when people discuss MBTI stuff, so I guess it's true that they're rare.

Every single time I take the test I get INFJ, but the thing is, that J is always around 3-4 points away from being a P. And from what I hear INFJ is the most misdiagnosed of the results. Does having almost 50/50 results on an aspect mean anything?

INTJ = Dark Lord

ENTJ = Good king

INTP = Alchemist

ENTP = Highwayman/Pirate/Thief

INFJ = Good wizard

ENFJ = Good priest

INFP = MacGuffin girl

ENFP = Main Hero

ISTJ = Knight

ESTJ = Dark Lord's Right Hand

ISFP = Tragic Anti-Hero

ESFP = Bard

ISTP = Assassin/Ninja

ESTP = Brute villain

Clarity of thought doesn't mean clarity of memory I'm afraid. Memory has more to do with the physical meat in your brain working well.

Same here, except I get INTJ or INTP. Apparently those are rare but not online, it seems because I have met a lot of people with those types online

>Are MBTI types good for character creation?
I would say no but that doesn't make it any less valid than any other method

I am a firm believer that you should start with a rough concept that can be crap but over time make your character good through staying engaged in the story and having them molded by the events therein.

Some of the best characters I have played ended-up far off from where they started personality wise...

no

>Doesn't make me confident that it's worth a damn.

its been ridiculed by the psychological community for like 50 years now, it was written by a polsci mother and her agricultural science daughter

the only people that legitimately care about it are popsci retards and HR departments (populated by popsci retards). its failings include not seperating neurotic social behavior from introversion, implying unfounded dichotomies, and the ease of manipulating the results

however, its not a total loss since there are a few funny pictures based on the MBTI types

Topkek

INTP is plastic jug vodka because it's maximum efficiency

Well, they might make a good starting point, like any group of psychological archetypes, outdated or otherwise. I don't think they'd be PARTICULARLY good, I could just as easily see one constructing a character using the Big Five, or having a character be particularly focused around Freud's archetypes- the oral person, the anal person, the genital person, etc.