6 Common RPG Character Cliches And The Disorders They Suffer From

Let's break down typical character cliches and diagnose them with real world disorders.

By Andy Wong /

In the world of RPG gaming, the importance of the characters - especially the playable ones - rivals the importance of the gameplay. Whenever a new character is revealed, a storm usually follows of raging fanboys who disagree with anything from the clothing and hair to the name and race. Sure, the design is the first impression everyone gets, but what really makes a character memorable is the minute they open their mouths. A playable character's introduction usually gives a pretty good idea of their role in the game as developers try and cram in as much as possible in the one minute cinematic all in hopes of giving the player something to latch onto. With this strategy in mind, RPG characters usually end up being bigger, louder, and exaggerated versions of real people walking around like the circus is in town. What happens when a person has a bigger, louder, and exaggerated personality? That's right, that person is brought to a psychiatrist for being a threat to society's norm and is diagnosed with some sort of mental disorder. If our world was an RPG, I'd study up to be either a pharmacist or a psychiatrist because then I'd be making more money than Oprah's dog - a number I can probably never reach in my lifetime. Here are six common character cliches found in RPGs and what mental disorder they all suffer from. Before you all get mad, I am not any sort of doctor/psychologist so I'm not claiming to know everything about these disorders because I don't. I also don't mean any offense as these are fictional characters who do not live in a real society and even then are exaggerated. Deal with it.