>Play a shy, quiet stealth expert, easily browbeaten and just going along with whatever else does
>Constantly forced to break character and take charge because all other players are easily distracted, clueless and without direction, or often miss sessions entirely
Really sucks because I love the archetype. But never again.
Have you considered getting a new group?
Sounds like you're having a case of character development.
This.
One of my improv teachers watched me do scenes where something funny would happen, and I just couldn't keep a straight face and I'd bust out laughing in the middle of a scene. After the scene was over he asked me what I did wrong. I said that I couldn't keep a straight face and it killed the joke because someone I didn't stay in character.
He told me that laughing wasn't what I did wrong, but not using the laughter to inform myself about who my character is. Everything a character does tells a story, and letting a character evolve truthfully through honest action will always be more interesting than following some arbitrary goal or throughline that you had in mind at the beginning of the story.
Follow Actions, not Themes. Themes come about through actions.
This too though
yup, I like to play quiet types, but I always end up being the balthier of the group
Wanting to play the quiet type and ending up playing him as party face not 5 minutes into session 1 isn't character development.
It can be if you handle it right. Act like that shy, easily pushed around, character. Gradually stop being so shy, and so easily pushed around, as time goes on. Eventually snap and scream at your teammates in-character.
Sure, and in the meantime you have a whole bunch of no-progress sessions as no one does fuck-all.
If anything is to be done, your shy guy must cease being shy immediately. And that you can't spin into anything remotely positive.
have you tried not playing D&D
You misunderstand. You have progress, with your shy guy being forced to be the one to talk to the people, and being pushed around by the NPCs. Just talk to them the way really awkward people talk to women. lots of "um"s and "ah"s, and pausing, and trying to get out of the conversation and just saying really unoffensive things, or trying to say things you think they want to hear.
Your stealth expert must have had a mentor, or a handler for any missions before they met the party. If the GM is as worried about player indecision as you, and you don't use his skills for anything, you could have another character giving your party that guidance remotely.
Literally fuck all to do with D&D you autist
Not him, but it's a small step from
>The quiet, stoic expert
and
>The quiet, stoic expert who has a weakness for dick jokes
See what I did there? I gave the stoic expert a trait? Now when this assassin attends a royal ball he won't just stand in the corner brooding, he'll be covering his mouth and trying to look away from the incredibly phallic looking cake.
You just have to recognize when you're the only person in your group capable of playing the face and own it. You also have to hope your GM recognizes it too.
At no point did user mention anything about brooding or being stoic.
They're quiet and shy and easily coerced into doing what others want. They already have traits.
>Character development
See, I'd agree with those posts in principle, but not wanting to take a character in a given direction is perfectly reasonable.
Especially when they're forced to act a given way not because of in-character reason, but due to player frustration with the group.
>Make character who is a blank slate with no set personality yet (essentially a newborn Golem/Automaton given sapience), meant to be a follower and not a leader
>Entire party is fucking braindead and can't think their way out of a paper bag
>Party face/leader ends up being the 20 INT 6 WIS starspawn shapeshifting abomination that doesn't understand simple concepts like "living things need their blood INSIDE their body to live" instead of one of the generic Bard or other CHA classes in the party
I mean their character was meant to develop into a more "adult" mindset over time but it ended up having to happen over the course of 2 sessions due to other PC incompetence
wot
Have you guys considered that no-one actually gives a shit about your character's development? I mean, it's obvious your group doesn't, and neither does the DM.
You are literally performing for no-one.
Maybe if you're in a shitty group. My group is always interested in everyone's characters and their development.
>make an oblivious and socially unaware character
>the party doesn't ever try to stop him when I'm making him gaff
>they just stood there while I scolded a giant fire spirit that was going to burn down a village
>play obnoxious and aggressively socially unaware character
>party adapts to the dynamic, works around her
>distracts her when talking to important npcs, convinces her that random errands that they need performing and actually super important and she should do them
>feels good man