Can self-inserts ever be good?

>>51639198
Please tell me this is parody

>>51639220
It has to be satirical.

>>51639198
Only if the whole game is self-inserts, and all of the characters are treated as realistically as possible.

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There's an ongoing experiment in /co/ and everyone's trading barbs about the methodology.

>>51639198

Define "self-insert".

Any character will have some element of their creator in them. That's just how writing works.

But if you mean "blatant wish-fulfillment OC" then no, they can't be good. Or at the very least they can't be interesting.

>>51639198
Yes, but the author/player still has to treat the character indifferently in the context of the setting. The biggest problem with self-inserts is that bad writers give them all kinds of favors and they just wind up being a different flavor of Mary Sue.

>>51639301
>Any character will have some element of their creator in them.

This is actually an interesting topic. Often, I find that how my characters are like me isn't obvious until I stop to think about it.

>>51639198
Nope

>>51639311
I agree with this. At first I thought I was playing someone really different from myself but then as the character went through more different experiences I realized we were similar all along

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>>51639198
>Can self-inserts ever be good?

If they have great tits, that tends to help balance things out.

Yes. Can OP not be a faggot? Absolutely not.

>>51639198
I self inserted into a game I was running a couple years back before killing myself off in my third appearance. I have a low opinion of myself.

>>51639301
>>Any character will have some element of their creator in them. That's just how writing works.
>>51639311

i've been doing some creative "writing" in my head for some time now and yeah, i have a bunch of characters in a setting. i wasn't sure how to start writing from scratch so they're all based on some element of me. one of them personifies my confidence and intuition, another one personifies my ambition and insecurities. obviously they aren't that 2-dimensional and simple but it felt like a good starting point and lets me more easily look at things from their angle.

>>51639311
>>51639445
>>51639605
One of the commonalities that I find, which I have some difficulty overcoming, is speech.

It's difficult to erase your own choice of words and ways putting them together in description or reaction to things.

>>51639835
This, its one of the reasons why continous exposure to other people/cultures/areas/writings etc is so important in order to gain variety in this if nothing else.

>>51639835
Ugh, this. Too many of my characters have my sense of sarcasm. Sometimes that's great, but it makes them all bleed together a little too much.

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>>51639198
The Self-Insert is only good when no one notices its a self-insert.

>>51639198
If you play the character as an autistic, socially awkward weeaboo, then yes.

>>51639997
Agreed. If a character instantly pings Mary Sue you're doing it wrong.

>>51639198
I played a game of CoC where everyone played as themselves, statted by the rest of the group, and we all died. So I think it was pretty good yeah.

Lord British

>>51640573

>Lord British
>good

I guess that's how Garriot intended him but there's no way that fucker is even one step above CN.

Dante's "Divine Comedy" was a self-insert.

>>51640128
You're friends with horse dicked futa with bee antennae?

It helps if the person doing it doesn't draw any parallels to christ and/or faust.

>>51641491
But Jesus is the ultimate self-insert.

They can be funny as a self-parody if done with taste. Otherwise, no, never. It's like asking if Mary Sues can ever be good.

>>51639311
My characters are actually never like me, it's extremely rare for them to possess any of my character traits. I guess I don't love myself enough. My good characters are examples of what I value in people, and my bad characters are what I despise in people.

>>51641532
The problem with parodies is that they often become the thing they mock, and if the thing they mock is shit, so will the parody be.

The only good parodies of anything have starred Leslie Nielsen.

>>51641589
A good parody IMO also subverts the thing they are mocking and show the problems that exist with it while still creating an engaging story or character.

Just doing LOOK AT THIS SILLY THING, WHAT A FUNNY REFERENCE RIGHT GUYS, is the shitty lazy form of comedy popularized by The Big Bang Theory.

>>51641626
Not a parody of self-inserts. A parody of the person doing that.

>>51639492
>that is her flaw
Anybody that comes to me with that is going to have their wildest desires fulfilled in the most interesting ways.

Play into in hardcore, attracting tons of opponents because of jealousy, always drawing aggro in fights, magical jealousy aura makes diplomacy impossible.

Behold, your bed. Lie in it.

>>51641312
It was self-insert fanfiction of the bible, where his self-insert was even guided by one of the most notable fanfiction writers of history, Virgil

>play a game where the character sheet you make is of another person at the table
>they play their own character sheet
>you play a character sheet of you

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>>51639198
I think they can.

We played in a modern setting and one of the PCs was a crust punk. I didn't saw this particular player before the first game session and at the beginning I thought that it will be kind of cool to have such character in party. Then on the day of the session turned out that this player WAS an actual crust punk.

I feared that he will be annoying self-insert, but in reality he was a great player: was really useful to the party, stayed IC most of the time (Well, as far as it can be done with self-insert character), didn't metagame and was pretty bro-tier guy in general.

So, I think that self-insert character shouldn't be automatically a red flag. They can be done right.

>>51641703
>the game is interesting and challenging

Yay!

>>51641312
Does it count as self-insert if the guy doesn't even TRY to hide it? I mean, it's literally just Dante.

>>51641578
Look, this isn't all that avoidable. I think you're just not considering it fully.

>My good characters are examples of what I value in people

If you think those traits or values are important, and your characters think that those traits or values are important to have, then you have something in common with them. Even inheriting your moral code makes them like you.

>>51643746
I had to look up crust punk. Crust punk is awful.

>>51641430
>I eat everything I find

Self-insert characters are only good if your a likable character in real life

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>>51639198
For conservative definitions of "self-insert", absolutely, as long as you're reasonably self-aware. Roleplaying something you know and understand is intuitive, and tends to make your characters more genuine. That's why inexperienced roleplayers tend to play their orcs ans elves and dwarves either as weird-looking humans or one-dimensional stereotypes. The common ground between you and your character is usually the best place to start in terms of figuring out how the latter behaves, and why.

It only becomes a problem when it's a vehicle for wish-fulfillment, and/or when the player can't keep IC/OOC straight.

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>>51639198
>>51640110

Momonga from Overlord.

Thrown into another world where he wields POWER UNTO A GOD, but is a sad 40-year old virgin salaryman with no friends who would give anything to troll the internet with his old gaming buddies again. Instead, he has to babysit his friends' NPC followers, who worship him as their creator and are trying to conquer the world in his name. He is physically and emotionally incapable of enjoying his position (he's a skeleton, so no food/drink/sex, and any strong emotions he feels gets canceled out) and is slowly losing any grip on humanity.

>>51639198

Well, since nothing is good, I'm going to go out on a limb and say that no, self-inserts can't be good.

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>>51639198
I have a self insert in my setting. It's a hivemind of homunculi that run a "telegraph" service. I find it entertaining that my self insert as a GM is a group of unimportant NPCs.

>>51639198
My... anus is bleeding...

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>>51641703
A little while ago, one of my player came with a character concept like this. I allowed it, throw my plan for the game, and we played pic related.

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>>51645763
Hey, Chaotic Hungry is a perfectly normal alignment!

>>51648571
I don't think he really counts, unless he actually is the writer's self-insert. I mean, in the story he is a player who ends up actually inhabiting the body of his character, but that's a not the same thing (even in the story, I don't think it was ever mentioned whether he made the character to be a self-insert or not).

>>51639235
http://chunkysalsa123.deviantart.com/art/
My Google-fu says that person did the drawing, but the art must of been deleted because I go on the page and nothing. Person loves Steven Universe though, so beware. Also, for shits and giggles, Google's best guess was human behavior.

>>51641578
I have the opposite problem. I have characters that keep ending up with my negative traits.

>>51642720
Proposed a game of this to friends, but we never sat down and just did it.