User Blog:
Your Character and You: Really You

While talking the other week about hobbies for your character as a means to create verisimilitude, I tossed out the term 'self-insert.' While in the context it might be self-explanatory, I thought I'd take some time to talk about the idea of playing a self-insert. For good or for ill, it's a thing we've all done at least once as roleplayers and in the right context it can a great choice. In the wrong context or handled poorly, it becomes 'that character' that your group will complain about on message boards or with other gamers when you aren't around.

In case you didn't gather or had never heard the term, a self-insert is tossing yourself as a character into a work of fiction. In terms of roleplaying, it's about the same and the motivations for writer and for player are usually about the same. When done well, the self-insert is a chance to examine a bit of yourself in a drastically different environment then your own everyday life.

When done carefully, and with respect for other people at the table, it might even be a chance to expose or exorcise a few personal demons, but one must be very careful with that. After all, the gaming table is not your therapy session and you certainly aren’t paying the GM for that kind of thing, I imagine. The gaming table isn't the time to start screaming about how your father didn't love you, but the 'ah hah' moment when you realize you might actually betray your friends in a time of need is something great to internalize and contemplate later.

When done poorly and for the wrong reasons, the self-insert becomes a dull opportunity for self-aggrandizing. In this way, a writer or player uses his avatar in game as a way to achieve or 'win' as they may feel like they can't in real life. A player unhappy in their marriage may use a self-insert to have a series of affairs they won't be caught at despite the drain it is on the GM’s time. A self-insert might be used to make the player feel smarter, more masculine/feminine or otherwise just more successful. While this isn't always a harmful thing, when it is the players entire focus for the character, immersion is lost and the player may get down right angry when things aren't going their way.