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Not long ago, an idea was seeded within my mind. Over the past week it has germinated, and I believe it is now ready to flower in full form. The idea revolves around a new kind of main character in the RPG world. A hero(ine) who is not quite 'all there.' One with mental issues who does not take his/her medication. What can be done with such a conception of reality from the main character's point of view? Let's contemplate the possibilities.
First there is the idea of something vaguely like that in Killer 7, wherein the main character's separate personalities each have physical manifestations and all play differently (I should note I have not played Killer 7, merely am intrigued by the concept). For a party to be formed of nothing but the main character's disparate personalities would be... interesting but hard to work out. More feasible from a logistical standpoint would be the multiple personalities each departing from the party to make room for another one, for both plot and other reasons. That is one potential path.
Then there is the related, and rather more feasible, idea of having a main character with multiple personalities that do not have physical manifestations. This could be interesting; since each personality would (presumably) have a different fighting style. The ability to change personalities at will would be very nice, though the script writers probably would lament the amount of extra work required. For a gag or to make the player have some unpleasant challenge, at least one of the multiple personalities could be completely unskilled at fighting - or a pacifist. Or an idiot that doesn't take direction.
Shifting away from strict multiple personality disorder, what of a manic/depressive main character? When manic the character would be tireless and prone to shrugging off lots of hits in battle by ignoring them; when depressive the character would frequently just sit around and contribute nothing even when attacked. Straight-out depression wouldn't be much fun to play as, although a truly daring developer might come up with something workable.
Insanity... hm. How to work straight-out delusional insanity into a main character ought to prove a fascinating experience, particularly if the script isn't good. Have the entire game take place in the mind of the main character as a massive "Gotcha!" moment on the part of the makers? Bad idea. Have enemies not always exist save in the main character's mind, causing some fights to be against nonexistent adversaries? Um, no - that's a recipe for anger from the player. Secret conspiracies involving famous people behind every corner? That could be fun, although getting the supposed architects of the conspiracies to agree would likely prove an ugly legal endeavor. There are other ways to use delusional madness, but subject to the same potential of pitfalls.
I'll just throw the idea of a main character with Alzheimer's out for consideration. I don't have any good way to guarantee that the character wouldn't forget experience and skills learned, making the game one of those annoying "lose everything and start over for a new dungeon" types. Alzheimer's isn't even like the other disorders I've listed - so it doesn't fit well.
I'm temporarily tapped on ideas here, but the issue is full of potential. And I must thank Vicissitude for his Q&A letter that got me thinking about this in the first place.
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