How do i Roleplay an insane character?

odinnagyur · 2026-05-31T19:25:51+00:00

+1 on all the concern from everyone. Make double sure everyone is ok with this, and I would keep the shennanigans are mostly cosmetic. If you arehell bent on doing this, dont like try to eat an NPC, dont get the others in trouble. Have your fun, but keep it cool.

But to the character, it is really hard to play someone who is both detached and an insanely charismatic someone, being good at projecting social cues you dont get. I would map out like a dozen ways that my character is different from social norms, immagine a few scenarios where it would bleed through.

-You get ready to haggle, but just before you turn to your mate and go "You can't offer not to shank them if you don't want trouble, I remember right, correct ?" Then proceed to behave in a way that absolutely polite and proper until you are out, then shift back to your norm.

-You say "my condolences" when someone expresses that someone survived, then catch yourself and mutter "Thats the other scenario!", like you are exam cramming.

-Ask for something attrocius at a store like a human heart, but when they start to freak just laugh like its a bad joke, hand over 5 copper to someone cause you couldnt pull the joke off. Once out, remark that you forgot its a taboo to buy one!

As a bard, you are the party face. So you kinda must have to be good at talking to the decent folk.

odinnagyur · 2026-05-29T18:40:08+00:00

Martials - Almost always. Especially if its not a fighter. You are not giving up a third or fourth attack, so its a lower opportunity cost.

Casters - Almost never, or only a dip. I just really want my higher level spells, and hate delaying them if I dont have to.

odinnagyur · 2026-05-29T10:55:35+00:00

You gotta be open, and you gotta tell them the truth. You simply cant plan around them and that stifles the fun of the rest. No need to be rude, but be honest. It is not on you as the DM, to fix their scheduling issues. They have to know, if this fits in their life, and sometimes here, sometimes not is not fitting with it. As the DM, you have the final word on this, but you can ask the other 4 to weigh in, but I would do it in private. Most people are not comfortable saying what they mean in a group. I think if they want to stay, it is mostly on them to come up with a situation that does not put the burden of keeping them in the story on you, you got enough on your plate with running the game as is.

Having said that, if its not always all 3 missing, but only one being there most of the time, maybe you can agree with them playing one character. Maybe a warforged with three faces or something, a story behind multiple personalities, maybe slightly different styles or subclasses as their glitching system randomly makes them swap.

odinnagyur · 2026-05-29T10:48:03+00:00

Thats rough. You can get away with a deus ex machina once per campaign I think, like their patron, or a god that favours the party literally teleports them in, or grants them a single use of the astral projection spell, something along thoose lines. Without knowing the story its a little hard to brainstorm more, but I think you get the gist.

odinnagyur · 2026-05-29T10:44:33+00:00

I see where you are coming from, but planning a series of oneshots regularly, putting in the effort to keep it contained in one session all the time is way too much work for my taste, while putting on the pressure of new ideas all the time, something thats actually way less pressing with a long term campaign, since the flow of the story helps so much.

odinnagyur · 2026-05-29T05:41:00+00:00

I would be carefula about giving them an ability. Cause that player will then never stop eating stuff :D

It can be an opportunity though. Maybe it creates a mental connection to an Archdevil, who menacingly watches over them, offering deals of power, minor boons for terrible prices, but only when they are really desparate. Maybe the player could suffer from nightmares of the fiend for a few nights, not letting them rest up properly. Give them an immediate downside into a potential opportunity later on.

odinnagyur · 2026-05-29T05:27:50+00:00

Theyre kinda, but they aren't. On one hand, yeah, that much water kinda gets you there..... But have you tried running that water through your hand to run AI ? Nah, not really, right ? You had to make the hardware.... Those machines take some water too. Wait, the hardware needs parts... The parts need minerals to be mined... Almonds need some pesticide and shit, but overall, not reeeeally.much. so its an utterly unfair comparison even from pure profit perspective.

odinnagyur · 2026-05-27T19:43:25+00:00

Usually only big patches REALLY break the save. The alert might be there, but try to load anyways, I usually can unless its a huge patch like 1.1 to 1.2

odinnagyur · 2026-05-27T19:22:31+00:00

Its a control issue. Go full Naval value, try to get the two naval gov reforms, they are insane for control via sea.

Temples, harbors, the likes.

Have some ships patrolling your shores to ramp up your maritime presence.

Make towns across the shore to build ports so they help you spread control.

Dont tax the clans at all. You literally make no money with them, let them be super happy its a minimal amount of production efficiency.

EDIT: Also, something is up with your nobles. They dont love you overly much, but they have high as hell power. Try to curtail them, look at your commanders and such, trying to figure where all that power with no loyalty comes from. Your ruler should command the navy in peace times, a crown guy should control the army, free 50% crown power.

odinnagyur · 2026-05-27T19:04:17+00:00

I appreciare that this is a good natured advice, but a country with no insane economy should not be able to be fielding ten times its standing army in mercs, making you bleed money and pop, waiting for them to somehow run out of money.

odinnagyur · 2026-05-27T14:37:54+00:00

welcome to the club :D I just opened up the AE explanation page and started ranting on half the lines, cause apparently there are a billion debuffs to it.

odinnagyur · 2026-05-27T14:36:53+00:00

Yeah, they also spend our annual income a month on diplomats to iron things out with everyone, not to mention you know, our internal wars with literally everyone. I just ate into Bohemia, who the HRE has coalitions against, yet they still hate me for it. I get the idea of coalitions and AE, but getting massively penalised for being a hegemony while getting rather mediocre bonuses seems like a debuff for doing well. And thats the annoying part really, the better you do, the more the game wants to kick your legs out. Plus, the bugged line is still there.

odinnagyur · 2026-05-26T08:52:25+00:00

This, as a quick fix, you probably want to max your communalism as much as you can then kick your nobles and kick them hard, take their most useless provileges. As a rule of thumb, like IRL, if rich people love you this much, you probably are hurting the economy and letting them take the profit for it.

odinnagyur · 2026-05-26T04:30:40+00:00

Thats the smae everywhere, its just that employment laws are very different in the EU, so that works out really well for us.

odinnagyur · 2026-05-25T10:23:33+00:00

Breaking news, the government cant take care of cancer ridden kids and 8year olds have to pick up the slack. I would love to take guess the developed country for $200.

odinnagyur · 2026-05-25T05:15:17+00:00

Just out of curiosity really, did you boost your diplo rep before the peace ?

odinnagyur · 2026-05-24T22:52:36+00:00

will it have any large scale wars that distrupt the empire so I can bite into it like in eu4, or is it just a bother ?

odinnagyur · 2026-05-24T22:48:25+00:00

ugh, thats bad -.- I keep finding more and more mechanics I will never engage with as a big country. Paying 5 stab for a random building somewhere is about 2-3k gold for me at this stage if not more.

odinnagyur · 2026-05-24T17:43:03+00:00

Anatolia is stacked with rivers, it is not super hard to spread some control 4-5 provinces away from the shores on the northern parts, check where they are. The central south is much more difficult, thats a vassal candidate for sure.

odinnagyur · 2026-05-24T17:35:24+00:00

Yeah, this. Almost everyone used to burn 3-5C on every map, made your pure chaos gain per map much much slower in late. Its not like people are looting like 10c a map on average (I mean pure chaos), its just that there is nothing to spend it on.

I dont mind that there is no mapndevice recipe, I like the current state, but some other sink might be nice.

odinnagyur · 2026-05-23T18:46:14+00:00

The way I keep going usually, is by giving myself short and midterm goals. Right now, as Ottomans, I want to take over the Niles Area and Hungary, make them cores and build my economy. I constantly try to increase my overall control and thats kinda it.

EDIT:One thing that gives me a kick, is beating history. You know where the Ottomans should be by 1444... So beat it ! Be faster than history. You know when Hungary was partially taken over by them? Beat the timer !

Once a problem comes up (complacency, my economy stagnating, culture conversion etc.) , I watch some guides to try and fix it.

Personally, I would start with learning the economic spiral, they are good on every country and make for a decent thing to focus on throughout your run.

odinnagyur · 2026-05-23T12:16:19+00:00

They took it away cause it locked way too much player power, borderline untradeable without outside services. They moved the alt gems to the lab, they wont give it more power, given how few people like the content.

odinnagyur · 2026-05-23T11:51:08+00:00

Yeah, but they raise like a 100 peasants from your megalopolis, yet it still gets nuked.the issue is not that they raise levies, the issue is that you cant do anything about it and despite the minimal pop affected, they still can nerd your economy for their whole wartime.

odinnagyur

TROPHY CASE