Changing Characters

At today's gaming session, where we normally romp about as characters hunting down clues to stop an evil cult from raising up demons to destroy the world (in 1925, of course), we were thrown a curve ball.

After the initial set-up and recap of the previous sessions adventures and after setting down what our usual characters would be up to, the game master had us all roll our dice. Then, after numbers were counted, he told us to pick from the new characters that were placed on the table. All that was visible was the character's name, age, occupation and the briefest of brief descriptions.

We made our choices and were then informed that those would be our characters for this session. Only after we agreed to that were we allowed to learn more about these new mysterious personas that we were to put on.

It was fun. I think it made what would have been a good session into a great one.

But even more importantly, I think it gave us a chance to all really see who were were as players.

In just the few hours we played these new characters, it became clear what we brought with us to every character we played. Even in the new virtual skin--not one of our own design, for a change--some traits seeped through. When we meet again, we will be back in our old characters, but we will have a new perspective on them. We will know more clearly what is fabrication and what is just us coming through.

We will be more aware.

This is actually something I've done before. Not in the context of a game, but in my life.

There were times when, on a whim, I would decide to be someone different.

It was a way of pushing my own personal boundaries. A way of searching along the edges of my self and discovering just how large and varied they were. A way to, for a little while, get away from all of my problems and concerns (real or fabricated).

It is one of the reasons why being involved in a role playing game group is important to me.

But there is no need to limit such experimentation to gaming. I know I didn't. I know many other people who don't.

Putting on masks and costumes--be they literal of figurative--is an activity that stretches back almost as far as the human race. Being someone--or something--else for a little while gives us all a needed break from our normal reality. It opens our minds and spirits up to new and unusual things.

With Halloween on the way, we are getting near one of the few sanctioned times we can get away with performing such experiments in public. We forget that this is something we can do any time. As long as it is not used as an excuse to deliberately hurt ourselves or others, it is a healthy experiment to conduct.

Pick a day (or a weekend) and go someplace you have never gone before. Dress differently, act differently, introduce yourself to people as a character of your choosing. (Don't make any promises while in-character--at least none you will break--and don't start up anything serious relationship-wise, that would be unkind to the other person or people involved.) Live a different life for a little while.

Push you limits.

And then, in the quiet moments, look at what you are doing.

How far, exactly, did you go? How do you feel about that? How many things did you find you just couldn't change about your actions and mannerism?

Strip away the characters--all the characters, including the one we all put on every day--and you have the real person we are. Unadulterated by social constraint or imposed protocols.

Look at yourself for who you are.

Look at yourself for who you could be.

Only you can work toward improving either.

(And if you think there's no room for improvement, you haven't stepped back far enough.)

When was the last time you went out as someone else? I want to hear your stories.