Is it possible to play a character who is an asshole without

>>50804574
You can be an asshole. Just don't be an asshole with no common sense.

>The king tells you that he has a noble quest, one to finally cement your status as a Knight of the Realm. You must find...
>The king can go fuck himself. He's nothing but an old, drunk, sisterfucking bastard.
>...
>What? It's what my character would do!

If you're going to be an asshole, ask yourself, 'Will this result in a total party kill? Would I do this in real life? Why am I doing this?'

I feel it just like making an asshole character without said character being unlikable

>>50804574
Your character can be really lazy and dumping all the hard work on the rest of the party, which is asshole but because the other players aren't going to get tired by having their character use a shovel for 8 hours, they won't mind.
Your character can also be really selfish, but happen to benefit from the rest of the party, so your shared interests makes you less of an asshole with them.
Try to avoid anything that fucks over their wishes and roleplay anything that won't be actually bothersome if it is only in the imagination. Say, if my character punches yours (but not for damage), there is no reason for the player to be angry about it even if his character is.
You can also make up for the times you do take a dump on your party by helping the other players with that they want for their characters with yours, even if you do so by giving your character a selfish reason to do so.

>>50804574
> Is it possible to play a character who is an asshole without being 'that guy'?
Give him flaws. Don't make him infallible.
Asshole characters aren't annoying, it's the asshole characters who are infallible that are annoying.

>>50804574
I'm running Shadowrun, and one of the players made a dwarf with no charisma, no social skills, and a tendency to start fights. The player's pretty decent though, so he doesn't ruin other people's fun.

One time he did get the party into trouble though. They'd just been paid by Mr Johnson, and two of the other party members had made a mess of it and drawn the attention of a group of gangers as the money changed hands. (That part didn't involve the dwarf; he never accidentally messes up important exchanges, but he does do this next bit.) They approached the party as their employer slipped away, and I went into Smiling Thug persona for some insincere, menacing psuedo-charm.

>Evening, lads! Looks like you just got given a lot of cash, there! What are you going to spend that on?

Without missing a beat, the guy playing the dwarf responds, in character, with:

>A night with YOUR mum!

When the table, me included, finished laughing, I just had them roll initiative. No coming back from that one.

So, his character was an asshole. In a different situation, he could also have been that guy. I think he managed to play an entertaining asshole by never being an asshole to NPCs that the party cared about, and by only picking fights in situations where a fight was clearly about to kick off. Easy to get that second part wrong, but he's judged it pretty well so far.

Asshole characters can be fine.
The key is to make sure that the table doesn't dislike you out of character, for one, and then to make sure that your character's goals and efforts align with the party enough that they don't/can't just part ways or kill you.

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>>50804574
As long as the people at the table are entertained you can get away with a lot of shit.

It's totally possible. I had a coworker that was the biggest asshole I've ever met, but be was charming and funny enough to pull it off. He might have been an asshole, but he was OUR asshole. Make your character into a jester and a joker, someone who makes the party laugh with his assholish behavior and who has the charm and the smarts to actually get away with his outrageous antics without bringing trouble down on the party's heads.

Moderate the assholishness. Don't start fights at literally every opportunity, but it's relatively okay to poke a waking dragon, or be a dick to a npc the other players don't like.

Just don't fuck over the game without getting everyone to agree.

>>50804574
Sure. You can be Sir Asshole and His Merry Band of Asshole Knights.

Easy mode; be assholes to everyone who isn't in your party.

It's harder if you're being assholes to each others characters but if everyone is ok with that then it can be fun too.

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>>50804574
As long as the asshole character is helpful to the group and has his niche he fills nicely, that the rest can't do without, it will/should be okay.

I actually played am ass hole character once.

He was a Canada good in a party of humans, so more coukd be gotten away with, but he was a cantankerous shit none the less. It's really all about knowing when and where to be an asshole, and if being an asshole at this moment in time makes sense both in character and out.

>>50806370
*Canada Goose

Yes. I'm currently playing an asshole edgelord character in a campaign. You need to be conscientious as a player, have actual reasons behind your actions, play to your flaws, but also round them out with redeeming characterizations. There has to be a reason why your party puts up with your drama.

In short, you have to play a 3d character who is also an asshole. You can't just be an asshole.

From my experience, playing flaws well can make for some really intense scenes. Even when your characterizations put the party in less than desirable positioning in a plot, it can become really thrilling. At the same time, don't be a one trick pony, and don't overdo it. Be round.

>>50804574

Oh sure, it's mostly a question of "are you playing a character who's an asshole" or "are YOU being an asshole" most of the time.

For instance, an asshole might leave the shit work up to another character who can do it just fine and go do something like chat up a babe at a local bar, knock her up, never call her again. A good player playing that asshole character would be pretty up front about "this is why I'm doing it" and fade to black when he seduces the woman.

THAT GUY would refuse to fade to black, demand full screen time for every moment of the fuckin process and so on. I've had THAT GUYS who essentially hold the game hostage in the classic petulant child move of "I'm not moving unless you [do whatever it is I want] and nobody gets to play the game" which is just YOU being an asshole, guy, not the character.

Another example of someone "playing an asshole" but really just BEING an asshole would be like, "I'll only pick this lock for 20,000 gold" "Frank this is the first lock in a dungeon that's likely full of locks" "And they're all 20K a pop too" "That's a staggering unreasonable sum." "20K a lock." "We're all level 1. We have 10 gold between us." "Guess no locks are getting picked!"

Having your character be kind of a dick and ask for a little extra to do their job or skim a little off the top, that's playing an asshole. Actually HALTING THE GAME to try and cram your character's dick down everyone's throat is being an asshole.

>>50804574

It depends on what your group is playing - both the 'mood' of the game, and their characters.

If they're all non-assholes, your character might be out of place. The one thing to remember is that, unless it's a comedy game where the contrast between your character and everyone else is done for humor, your character shouldn't be much worse than the next most assholish PC.

If the other PCs are all incorruptible heroes, a suspicious 'anti-hero' who enjoys insulting others a bit too much but never does anything actually offensive is the furthest you can go, but a party of genuinely flawed human beings would allow you to create an offensive, and maybe even narcissistic or misanthropic, piece of shit with few redeeming qualities other than his entertainment value, both in game and out of game.

tl;dr: don't make a character that doesn't mesh with the game/party and remember that it's always ok to insult and offend NPCs (exactly which NPCs this includes may vary), usually ok to insult PCs, unless you do t too often, and never ok to insult players through your character's personality or actions.

>>50804574
Care to elaborate on what kind of asshole you want to play?

>>50804574

Tony Stark is an asshole and he's one of the most beloved characters in the Avengers. Sherlock Holmes is constantly an asshole and he's one of the most beloved fictional characters ever.

Basically, you need to play your character like Robert Downey Jr.

Angering the other PCs is fine.

Angering the other PLAYERS makes you a That Guy.