[quote=@Vilageidiotx] Naw naw, this don't fly. People can't just RP themselves. That would be awful. It's like saying a writer can only write characters who are extensions of them. Like, holy shit, that would just all around suck. It is true that, to RP traits that you don't have, you have to understand those traits. That does take empathy, which might make it difficult for younger people to pull it off, but that doesn't mean the effort isn't worth it. Hell, you might improve your own empathetic skills through learning how to write characters unlike yourself. [/quote] Shoot, didn't mean for it come off quite like that. I actually agree with you, people shouldn't be playing carbon copies of themselves. If you are a generally nice, good, law-abiding citizen it doesn't mean you can't play a mean, evil, criminal mastermind. I feel like you can just easily put yourself in that situation and be like "Okay, cool, what would I NOT do here?" and still be able to create a great bad dude. Likewise, if you're generally shy and quiet you can still play a character who is outgoing and talks a lot by taking what you know and tweaking it. I totally agree with you that a good writer or role player would be able to use empathy to portray emotions that they usually don't have or use themselves to create an unique personality that is different from their own. I just don't think you can empathize actual intelligence, since being smart isn't really an emotion. Going back to what I originally said, I feel that if somebody was able to portray a character that was smart, quick witted, whatever, then it would mean that person role playing them was also smart, quick witted, whatever. Sure, someone could get some dumb luck, but it wouldn't hold up throughout a whole RP. Hopefully that cleared it up a bit. Feel free to tell me if I'm just being a jerk.