Which sorts of characters are you willing / unwilling to play and why?

[Flyndaran]

For the back story of a character I could see playing one that believes things I find dangerously absurd in real life.

Playing a slow character propped up with top of the line A.I. technological assistance might be an interesting challenge.

[jeff_wilson]

Originally Posted by sir_pudding

Rape, torture, sexual abuse and probable eventual murder of a sapient being made only to suffer are not "kinky sex".

That's the purview of the algonaut's owner, not the algonaut's player.

Originally Posted by sir_pudding

If you think so you are probably a dangerous sociopath.

Spiders are notorious for earnest attempts to kill their mates instead of toying with them.

[jeff_wilson]

Originally Posted by Keiko

And I thought it was amusing understatement. Different strokes for different folks, I guess.

It's black comedy to be sure, and it plays on Molokh having been accused of being a giant intelligent spider based on some rhetorical comments he had made about reproductive strategies. Which is also double black comedy because of the homonymic reference to the biblical Moloch, to whom children were sacrificed by immolation.

I don't see anything inherently producing Hurting Wrong Fun about playing an algonaut, it's not their fault they were built after all, and I had a similar liberated replicant-for-abuse PC in long-running game that drew less negative comment than most pirates or vampires.

[sir_pudding]

Originally Posted by jeff_wilson

I don't see anything inherently producing Hurting Wrong Fun about playing an algonaut, it's not their fault they were built after all, and I had a similar liberated replicant-for-abuse PC in long-running game that drew less negative comment than most pirates or vampires.

I'd play one like the liberated RN officer in the vignette. I wouldn't play a slave.

[jeff_wilson]

Originally Posted by jeff_wilson

I don't see anything inherently producing Hurting Wrong Fun about playing an algonaut, it's not their fault they were built after all, and I had a similar liberated replicant-for-abuse PC in long-running game that drew less negative comment than most pirates or vampires.

BTW, I meant I ran the game, the PC was not mine personally.

[vicky_molokh]

Perhaps my hasty footnote was misleading. I'll give clarifications in chronological order.

Originally Posted by sir_pudding

Rape, torture, sexual abuse and probable eventual murder of a sapient being made only to suffer are not "kinky sex".

It's not as if Caine didn't occasionally undergo things that would match your definitions of 2-3 items of the list. (Not trying to put words in your mouth, just eyeballing based on the way you spoke about certain things about bioroids. Will reclassify if necessary.)
A lot of it is a matter of scale, though there are other qualitative differences about algonauts that go beyond your list.

Originally Posted by jeff_wilson

That's the purview of the algonaut's owner, not the algonaut's player.

Originally Posted by jeff_wilson

I don't see anything inherently producing Hurting Wrong Fun about playing an algonaut, it's not their fault they were built after all, and I had a similar liberated replicant-for-abuse PC in long-running game that drew less negative comment than most pirates or vampires.

I don't see anything wrong about someone playing one - as long as this someone isn't me, and realises what s/he/it is doing. If this someone was in my party would, I'd be uneasy, but that's about it: I've seen more disturbing things in my parties as a GM.
Now, if someone took one as a minion ally/property, I can't predict my reaction. If my current character was Caine, I'd probably ask the GM if the campaign is meant to include PvP.

In what way did your replicant draw negative comments? (You said 'less'.)

Originally Posted by sir_pudding

I'd play one like the liberated RN officer in the vignette. I wouldn't play a slave.

That's probably another big stopper for me. The big PSR experiment for me is to try playing both - a master and a minion. GM said it was actually very noticeable that I almost regretted picking Caine instead of Cherry as the PC. (I didn't regret it - I just had to pick one or the other, so I picked the one for whom I had an actual character sheet when it was time to choose.)

So my next* character is planned as a minion bioroid of some sort (not Cherry). For me, in that context, the playability line is drawn roughly through the elf kitten: on the less extreme side we've got Xenocops, Tianyi, Martian pleasure models etc.; on the more extreme side there's the algonaut, the hecate (maybe), and the busr. The kitten is firmly sitting on the fence - probably possible to make into an interesting, non-cardboard, meaningfully interacting character, but I don't trust myself to be able to do that without resorting to speech-replacing equipment of some sort (to which I would have to ask: what's the point then?).

* == I've still got about a year of play in the current campaign/story arc. But at the end of it (if the GM keeps running THS), I'll get to choose to either continue with Caine, or make another character. Ergo, next character.

[vicky_molokh]

Now, onto the joke part.

Originally Posted by Keiko

I think he was joking.

Originally Posted by sir_pudding

It wasn't funny.

Originally Posted by Keiko

And I thought it was amusing understatement. Different strokes for different folks, I guess.

I suppose this gets to the question of what different folks see as acceptable/unacceptable black comedy material.

Dr. Wilson's comment also happened to be highly ironic (whether in a funny way or not is for you to judge), because the original reason for looking into the traits of the submissa template came from a character concept of a bioroid who sees the bedroom part of Indentured life as strictly SSC/RACK (DR 1, HPT, VRH + No Mental Instability + Lecherousness and a 'cute' guardian). But it's kinda hard to crack Addams family jokes about/as someone with LPT, so I wouldn't make fun of the more extreme templates.
Reads differently in retrospect, doesn't it?

Also, for the record:

Spoiler:  

Originally Posted by jeff_wilson

Spiders are notorious for earnest attempts to kill their mates instead of toying with them.

Originally Posted by jeff_wilson

It's black comedy to be sure, and it plays on Molokh having been accused of being a giant intelligent spider based on some rhetorical comments he had made about reproductive strategies. Which is also double black comedy because of the homonymic reference to the biblical Moloch, to whom children were sacrificed by immolation.

While I do still say that children below roughly age 6 don't seem to qualify as sapient, that doesn't mean I advocate allowing wanton cruelty towards them. And while my nickname indeed is derived from Moloch, it is named after the player-character model from Requiem: Avenging Angel, not after the deity. The -kh is there because Slavic people tend to mispronounce 'ch'. Anyway, almost everybody calls me Vicky ever since I joined the RP community (i.e. since slightly after year 2000), so I eventually changed my forum handle.

[Keiko]

Originally Posted by vicky_molokh

Now, onto the joke part.


I suppose this gets to the question of what different folks see as acceptable/unacceptable black comedy material.

Dr. Wilson's comment also happened to be highly ironic (whether in a funny way or not is for you to judge), because the original reason for looking into the traits of the submissa template came from a character concept of a bioroid who sees the bedroom part of Indentured life as strictly SSC/RACK (DR 1, HPT, VRH + No Mental Instability + Lecherousness and a 'cute' guardian). But it's kinda hard to crack Addams family jokes about/as someone with LPT, so I wouldn't make fun of the more extreme templates.
Reads differently in retrospect, doesn't it?

First LPT?

Second DR HPT VRH? SSC? RACK?

And finally I can appreciate that some don't like gallows humors or black comedy. That's cool. Humor is personal but labeling someone as a potential sociopath because of a mild joke of understatement and poking a little fun at a board member allegedly being a giant spider (impossible...but I'll get to that) is kind of over the top. Particularly since the entire thing is about imaginary people that do not and maybe cannot exist. There are no bioroids of any kind to be tortured or even be offended by someone making quips about their fictional plight.

So, no, it really doesn't read differently.

[SimonAce]

Originally Posted by Keiko

First LPT?

Second DR HPT VRH? SSC? RACK?

And finally I can appreciate that some don't like gallows humors or black comedy. That's cool. Humor is personal but labeling someone as a potential sociopath because of a mild joke of understatement and poking a little fun at a board member allegedly being a giant spider (impossible...but I'll get to that) is kind of over the top. Particularly since the entire thing is about imaginary people that do not and maybe cannot exist. There are no bioroids of any kind to be tortured or even be offended by someone making quips about their fictional plight.

So, no, it really doesn't read differently.

I love the rough and tumble nature of this board but some folks here like everywhere are a bit squeamish. I was chewed up good for some rather unpleasant suggestions about what ought to be done with the loathsome K'Kree (centaur bad guys from Traveller) in war time on one occasion long ago even though they are clearly imaginary. It hit a trigger I guess and some things happen.

Now as to the topic at hand, I'd have trouble playing people whose mindset is too different than default baseline human, too foreign (I don't know what sort of social filters non European and Non Asians use) or too "hip and urban" the later at least if played straight . I am not sure I'd like or understand most of the people in THS actually, they have (by my standards at least) the morals of a tentacle monster mixed with the worst of Progressives and Libertarians . Mother Jones plus Ayn Rand is manageable but barely

[vicky_molokh]

Originally Posted by Keiko

First LPT?

Second DR HPT VRH? SSC? RACK?

Low Pain Threshold.

Damage Resistance. High Pain Threshold. Very Rapid Healing. Safe, Sane and Consensual. Risk-Aware Consensual Kink(s).

Originally Posted by Keiko

And finally I can appreciate that some don't like gallows humors or black comedy. That's cool. Humor is personal but labeling someone as a potential sociopath because of a mild joke of understatement and poking a little fun at a board member allegedly being a giant spider (impossible...but I'll get to that) is kind of over the top. Particularly since the entire thing is about imaginary people that do not and maybe cannot exist. There are no bioroids of any kind to be tortured or even be offended by someone making quips about their fictional plight.

Everyone has their limits, even in RP context. Yours are related to racism (which I wonder how interacts with THS PSR-racism). Sir_pudding is sensitive to totally meaningless suffering of innocents (based on previous posts - please correct me if I am wrong). I was affected more by the very concept of creating a sapient (heck, just sentient and self-aware) entity for the sole purpose of suffering.

Originally Posted by Keiko

So, no, it really doesn't read differently.

Eh, no, I meant that the accusation at being squicked out by kinks reads as either deliberately extra ironic, or simply implausible, when the considered together with the character concept that spawned the question.