but in real rolepley to take on stamps like lusty bard, stupid paladin, etc.. - it's really hard. Coming up with a character and playing it in such a way that it's cool and not stupid, not to slip into nonsense and not to become someone who spoils the game and immersion of the whole party, I think, is a very difficult task.
In real roleplay I know it the other way round: you play how you play and those labels develop as you play. You can decide to try a certain role, but whether that works out depends on too many variables.
It also depends a lot on the gaming group. You cannot play intimacy well, if you don’t have absolute trust in your group — and that everyone will do their best to respect the borders of everyone else — while shallow silliness is the easiest play style, but can also relax after an intense scene. Regardless of whether that scene was solving a complex puzzle (I fondly remember decrypting a text by hand with a time limit), witnessing mass-murder, or an intense discussion whether to leave ones child behind to save the world.
Depending on the group, roleplaying can be very, very different.
I once disbanded a group when a player didn’t respect the limits of another player. Repeatedly touching their hair unbidden and unwanted is a no-go.
I played an addicted character who got deceived and misled by a bard who wanted to drag him into a terrorist uprising (and I reported him to the judicator after 24 hours of play — one of the hardest decisions I took in gaming groups).
I played a former prostitute trying to build a life. He was easy to have and used all he had to stay afloat. And we faded to black early.
I played a mage who regularly rejected advances by a panther-shapeshifter team mate who would have caught a bullet for him (and did, more than once). In retrospect I think that that character was too cold.
I played a dragoness who got intimate a lot with a draco-form officer.
And a space pilot who turned from fighter to healer over 10 years of play — and I’ll never forget the look on the face of the GM when I made advances on a mortal enemy when we were on a ship that had an enforced truce.
Not to forget a warrior monk who only cared about doing the right thing and died while killing a demon pact-holder.
I play an android who is bound to follow the orders of the others in the group to the letter (and no, no one abused that; instead they are trying to teach me to take my own decision — except for one who thinks me too dangerous to exist, and I’m not sure who is right).
And an unsure juvenile carer for the elderly who just discovered that as a chosen one he can transform the necklace the weird old lady gave him into a heavy spiked artifact chain to slaughter vampires together with the house keeper and the weird old lady and a doddery war veteran who complains about the feeble uncouth youth when he’s not drinking too much of the homebrew drugs of the lady.
And a fake academic who took over the life of his officer who was an actual academic and looked almost exactly like him (but he’s almost insane now; we’re playing Call of Cthulhu; what happened to the noble night in another CoC campaign isn’t for the public).
And many, many more (and yes, I could keep going, but I think I made my point about gaming groups being different).
