Stress Testing

One of the things I enjoy about role-play are the unexpected things you can learn when trying to enter a character's frame of mind. I have mentioned, I'm sure, that there are things you don't know about a character until you're actively RPing with them and figuring out their reactions.

I quipped to one of my friends that I was "stress testing" a character when she agreed to do some RP with me with a new DK I'm playing for a storyline.  I think that can be an apt term, as I was learning what strengths and weaknesses I had while playing Dearnly.  I was trying to test what did and didn't work with him and discern any quirks the character may have.  About half way through the "test" I was surprised at a reply Dearnly made; how odd it is, to be the author of a character, and yet be taken by surprise at his actions.

Richard Dearnly is a character created, quite literally, to kill my priest, Ketlan- or at least attempt to do so.  He wasn't originally my character.  Some of my guild mates noticed that Kordrion, Ketlan's husband, was always being beaten up, and that one day it should be Ketlan who winds up in the infirmary.  Kordrion promptly invented a death knight to supply the violence.

Kordrion invented the background.  The death knight was a former colleague of Ketlan's, from her days in the military during the Northrend Campaign.  There was a battle- a massacre, almost- where everyone in the company except Ketlan and a few others died.   The Death Knight was not one of the survivors.  After the Lich King's fall, he went on a mission to kill everyone who "betrayed" him by surviving the battle, including Ketlan.  I named the DK Dearnly, using the grand tradition of finding the nearest object next to me with names and picking a semi-decent one at random. (In this case, a Darrius Rucker album sleeve.)

That was the entirety of his history; he didn't have a name, or an avatar.  Kordrion "played" Dearnly via emotes when he confronted Ketlan and very nearly succeeded in killing her before friends intervened.  He disappeared back into the NPC Mists, a plot thread left dangling out of sight until a short while ago.

Kordrion and I wanted to start a new plot, involving Kordrion (once again) being hurt.  We recalled that we had Dearnly still hiding somewhere and agreed on a plot where he'd attempt to kill Ketlan, but Kordrion would take the hit instead.  There wasn't a question of letting Ketlan being injured, as she's currently in the middle of a pregnancy and neither of us want the drama of "injured pregnant woman."  I ended up using one of my extra character slots to roll and actual DK, taking over the character of Dearnly.

It presented an interesting challenge, since it wasn't a character I had originally envisioned.  I spent some time giving him an actual name- Richard - and a more precise background to flesh out his motivation.  I know now exactly how he died and why he feels betrayed, and where the massacre fits into Ketlan's background.   His personal character, however, has continued to elude me.

There are things I know must be true about him.  He's obsessive and narrow-minded.  He's a skilled fighter, having been raised as a Death Knight, surviving the fall of the Lich King, and then successfully hunting down all but two of the battle's survivors.  But what about his sense of humor?  How does talk?  Does he look down on others?  Uncouth and to the point? Or reserved and philosophical?

That is why I wanted to "stress test" him with Kordrion before unleashing him on the other members of my guild.  I wanted to get a feel for what felt "right" for him, and for what I could successfully RP.  I learned a few things in that test.

First, I'm terrible at writing melee combat. I'm much better with a caster.  I felt like I was making far too many "Dearnly swings his sword at Kordrion" posts.  I need to study some proper combat role play some more.

Second, I had forgotten about the principle of crafting a villain to fit the hero.  Many hero/villain relationships have a "hot/cold" component.  If the hero is a cool, logical sort of person, the villain will usually be a impetuous, emotional, by-the-gut villain.  Spock vs. his brother Sybok comes to mind, or Batman vs. the Joker.   The reverse is also true.  Hot headed heroes get paired with ice cold, dispassionate villains: Ichigo vs. Aizen, if you'll excuse range of examples I'm giving.

It lead to the question: whom am I playing Dearnly against?  Is he a "hot" or "cold" character?  He he were truly Ketlan's enemy, a "hot" character would be best, someone who represent the things Ketlan dislikes about herself: her anger, her need for vengeance against those who wronged her, her propensity for violence that she has buckled down.  However, during the testing, I was up against Kordrion.  That affected the way I shaped the situation.  In retrospec, it's fitting that Dearnly is currently frost-specced, as he was very calm and vicious.   I'm not yet happy with how he turned out, although it may just be that Dearnly proves to be volatile in his very nature.

And third, it's still possible for me to be completely taken off guard by a character taking life of his own.  Up above, I mentioned Ketlan was pregnant.  One of the things I had considered about Dearnly was why he'd be willing to kill a pregnant woman for vengeance.  Was he truly that evil? I had decided beforehand that if asked, he would state his regret that the child had to pay for his mother's crimes.

Well- that was what I had planned.


Here is actually what occurred:


Kordrion: Kord flexes his hand slighly narrowing his eyes.  "Right. And this all justifies killing a child too?"
Dearnly:  "Killing her now, killing her six months ago.... same result, really, in the long run."
Kordrion: *And this happens to be where Kord would try to dismantle him!*


Despite the fact I had a pre-planned reply, the moment the question actually came up, a completely different attitude and opinion reared its head.  Dearnly simply doesn't see the moral difference in killing somone who is currently pregnant, versus someone who had the capacity to become pregnant.   If he had successfully killed Ketlan in his first appearance, would that make him less monstrous?  Either way, the child would never be brought to term and Kordrion would be without a wife.  For that matter, how is killing her now any different than if she had died back in Northrend, before Kordrion ever met her?

It is a point of view I hadn't considered, and quite honestly, don't quite "get," but it's one I'd like to explore with Dearnly.  Perhaps it's because he's dead, he views death and its inevitability a bit differently.  Perhaps death has made him unable to understand, or sympathize with, human connections.

I'm not sure I'll ever be quite happy with him.  Maybe I'll finally pin him down just in time for him to permanently die.  Dearnly and his obsession with vengeance doesn't strike me as being a character with enough depth to last long-term, nor have I ever desired to RP as a death knight long-term.   Still, it's been an interesting experience so far and has taught me at least one new way of looking at the world.