So it’s a personal reaction to if those characters were real people, then?

Xhodox never wanted to hurt Obi-Wan, he looked up to him. As a GM, I loved playing with you as Kale Arkam.

But if I ever met those guys as people and I wouldn’t get killed for it, I would take a pot shot at them because they are shifty, pushy and self-serving, double-crossing sneaky people. They spend so much time playing both sides against the middle that they could be using to pull for the good guys. But that’s just me. As a player, I see the value in that point-of-view.
.-= Rich´s last blog… Canon Puncture 85: Game Advocates – Sorceror =-.

I continue to wonder if I’ll ever get a game where I can successfully pull off the manipulation and moral tightrope-walking without falling or hurting anyone, but though going off what JJ said, every time I do it, regardless of the consequence, there is a memorable story to tell.

Most times, this stems from the setting and genre; I tend to play in a lot of modern crime and espionage games, where screwing people over for personal gain and/or the greater good is how the world works. For a year, I played an ex-DEA agent who was hunting drug dealers while working as a coyote on the Mexican border. I’m currently playing (in different campaigns) an ex-Marine working for a Blackwater-type security company, a Greek partisan/smuggler at the end of WWII, and an internet millionaire who lost everything and is now homeless.

Like you, Daniel, I am pretty much a straight arrow. I like good drama, drama results from conflict, and playing morally complex characters with dark sides makes for good drama. They’re also fun to play because they’re layered. There’s an art to keeping them likable while letting them make bad choices, and sometimes even I want to beat the snot out of my own characters for their decisions and resulting actions. But it makes for great stories and fun game sessions.

I think this is the key for both your characters: you play characters that create drama. You are both plugging into the idea that tension creats drama, whether that be tension from double-dealing arrogance or decisive violence. Tension primes the pump for you to unleash double-barreled dramatic awesomeness.

I say keep it up, you’re both doing something right.

One day I will play the double-crossing manipulator that keeps it all on the down-low until all is in place. We’ll see how that goes.

You play like you know my character’s secrets and will use them against my character, and like your guy is in total control because of all the stuff he knows and the pressure that knowledge can exert. You’re cocky about it. It’s like you’re daring me to try to get out from under your thumb.

Of course, this is all filtered through the lens of the two characters I’ve played alongside the two guys you’ve played who are steeped in this trope – and both of my characters were the type who would tend to react impulsively, decisively, and violently to any hint of being under someone’s thumb.

Just like you’re a law-abiding rule follower who likes to explore shifty machiavellians, I’m a passive reactor adrift on the seas of fate who likes to explore the notion of being a decisive, violently strong personality who refuses to be controlled, except by his/her own inner strength.

You play vampires, I play werewolves.