In what's probably going to be one of the more bizarre questions on /tg/ today, I need help playing a character WITHOUT a personality.
See, Shadowrun has a quality called "Blank Slate", where abusing personafixes (personalities loaded onto data chips) basically erases any personality you had yourself, and you only have one when you have a chip loaded. Since there's going to be circumstances where I don't have a personafix available (I know my DM well enough to know this will happen), I need to figure out what I'm supposed to do to play a character who has no defining personality.
Any advice? I don't want to make my character suck, but I also don't want to break the spirit of the quality.
Pic unrelated.
Emotionless characters are pretty fun when the other characters around them make up for it.
I main a Krieger in DH. The rest of the party attempts to humanize him to no avail.
>>43644084
>See, Shadowrun has a quality called "Blank Slate", where abusing personafixes (personalities loaded onto data chips) basically erases any personality you had yourself, and you only have one when you have a chip loaded. Since there's going to be circumstances where I don't have a personafix available (I know my DM well enough to know this will happen), I need to figure out what I'm supposed to do to play a character who has no defining personality.
Complete emotionlessness, catatonic state or complete breakdown (as in, "lie down and clutch head" breakdown, not "REEEEEEEE" breakdown).
>>43644084
A purely reaction based nature. No actual opinions beyond survival and a measure of comfort.
Essentially, a robot but who will generally react to a uncomfortable position - you cant keep standing for hours looking at paint drying, and you will take care of immediate urges, but nothing else besides.
Maintenance of equipment, training and general efficiency come first.
One of the disappointments of the latest Dragon Age game was the lack of ability to play a tranquil character.
I could have dead panned, misunderstood and been apathetic towards and ego maniac. I could have driven Corypheus insane with not only my lack of being intimidated but inability to give a shit about anything he gave a shit about.
It would have been fun. You get to go around being 0 fucks incarnate.
>>43644266
This is what I was leaning to most. Especially combines well with heavily-cyberized characters (essence loss means they're losing emotional capacity anyway). Dialogue will still be... interesting. Probably Krieg-tier "essentials only".
>>43644516
>This is what I was leaning to most
This is also one of more popular interpretations of always-on Wired Reflexes.
>>43644084
Don't really consider very much. If you have no personality, then nothing really catches your attention in any way. You're just kinda... there. You're not dismissive or rude. You can still focus on something or pay attention. You just won't be lingering on anything unless something about it gets you thinking.
I assume you still have your memories. You'll retain your vocabulary but you'll probably wind up having no real tone of inclination to your speech.
Kind of like a more plain version of Data during the first couple of seasons of Star Trek: TNG.
>>43644590
I see Wired Reflexes more like the mother of all caffeine highs. You can't sit still, you talk faster than anyone else, you can't stand waiting... From their own perspective it's completely normal, but from am objective view they're seeing the world in super slow motion, even more so the higher rating.
>>43644084
If you want to make it a little interesting, make them somewhat of a mimic.
They've got no personality of their own, but they're still physically capable of expressing themselves. So have then take on bits and pieces of the people around them for the duration of a scene.
Something like a child in the Bobo doll experiment:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=128Ts5r9NRE
(First minute or so)
They can pick up what others around them have done, even if none of it is inherent to them.
I'm assuming because of the lack of personality, they wouldn't be able to hold onto stuff like this for very long, but it would make things a little more interesting.
>>43644362
In which games could you do that?
Alpha Protocol, with the professional answer is kinda that;
>>43644084
Early Rei Ayanami works.
Actually, a mix of this>>43644624 and this >>43644266
Then, as your character gets to know the group, this>>43644826 in addition to the already established behavior.
Mirror the last person who recently interacted with your character when another one is talking to you, and so on.
Just some idiosyncrasies, figures of speech. Not the whole package. Albeit perhaps more strongly the longer or more intense the interaction.
Important question, OP:
Does your character REALIZE they've burned out their brain?
How you act will depend largely on whether or not you know there's a problem in the first place. Has your character been diagnosed by a trained medical professional?
>>43644826
You'd be playing the same character over and over again. Most people only have a few highly visible character traits.
No-nonsense, to the point, emotionally dulled wallflower is a personality too. A very distinct one even. It could certainly be something put on a persona chip.
Which is quite a problem here. Because basically any set of human behaviour, including not really doing anything at all, can be part of someone's personality. The blank slate state basically just doesn't work. In computer terms you're not setting the values for personality traits to zero for a proper blank slate, you're instead deleting them completely, which is going to make reality.exe throw a value undefined exception and crash to desktop when it tries to load the guy.
So, yeah, you're probably going to have to settle for a near-catatonic zombie instead.
Look at Rei Ayanami, from Neon Genesis Evangelion. She's a pretty good example of a well done "no personality" character.
>>43644932
oh god. Play it like a tumblrina with self diagnosed autism, ocd, adhd, transgenderism and schizophrenia.
>>43644967
How the fuck is that having no personality? That sounds like trying to imitate the feeling of motionless air by rubbing your face against a cheese-grater.
>>43644967
"I'm not burned out, I'm just opinionfluid!"
>>43645003
Exactly. He's over compensating with a very few shards he has left, because he's come to some faulty conclusions and feels the urge to put it out there.
Also OP should watch doll house. It's shitty wheedom wankfiction, but it's okay fr this.
>>43644932
I'm not entirely sure how much they'd be aware of a problem. They're a former bunraku doll (prostitutes with personafixes installed; ever wanted your waifu to fugg you? congrats, you can put her personality into a prostitute that looks kinda similar) with a bad reaction to said personafixes. Combine with long stint there, it's a bit of a problem. As far as a trained medical professional?
>implying shadowrunners can afford a real medical professional
>>43644921
>>43644826
>>43644624
I'm really looking at this stuff as what I think will work. Thanks, guys.
