a lot of the discourse around TTRPGs seems to frame edgy characters as inherently bad. there are a lot of stories about players using their edgy character to do problematic things at the table, and it’s often presented as if the character’s edginess is one of those problematic things. even if that isn’t the framing, there’s often a strong tone of disapproval whenever a character’s edginess is brought up

I’ve never actually played a TTRPG game with what I’d consider an edgy character so I don’t have any direct experience, but this honestly sounds like a weird remnant of cringe culture to me. cringe culture, obviously, is a culture of expressing disapproval and contempt towards people who express themselves in ways that don’t conform to social norms - which sounds to me like exactly what’s happening when people treat edgy characters as inherently wrong or bad

obviously the tone of a TTRPG game is something that everyone needs to agree on, and if one character is so dark in tone that they clash with the tone that everyone else wants, that’s a problem. it’s also a problem if the edgy character is bringing up a topic that the other players don’t want in their game. but I wouldn’t frame these problem as the character being edgy. I’d frame them as the character being badly-designed for this group

@kasdeya i have a soft spot for the "edgy character mellows out upon learning firsthand the power of teamwork and friendship" trope so i play edgy characters sometimes just to invoke it. and sometimes it works; i'm especially proud of the one i'm currently playing in a west marches d&d game - her alignment changed from true neutral to neutral good in the last session i played her and it felt earned

@smolcasm ooh that sounds like a cool arc for a character to have. tbh I’ve been tempted to make characters with a similar arc. specifically I’ve always wanted to make a character with a lot of trust issues, who pushes the rest of the party away at first, but who gradually learns to trust them and feel safe relying on them (this might actually be the same trope that you just mentioned)

@kasdeya in D&D-like games it can ruffle a few feathers, depending on the table, to push the rest of the party away too hard - at the end of the day, the core gameplay loop kind of just assumes the players will be playing characters who are somehow self-motivated to adventure as a group. in my character's case, i left her motivations vague (strongly implying them to be "i'm just here to get paid") and her demeanor professional yet aloof (very mission-focused - doesn't go out of her way to start conversations, but neither does she shut discussions down, especially when there's an objective involved). that way i can fulfill a number of the edgy stereotypes without my character seeming too out of place

@kasdeya we've played with a few folks who played edginess as "not wanting to work with the other characters," and we even played such a character in one of our earlier groups before we really knew how to balance character inner turmoil with the practical needs of a coop ensemble game

. . . it's an easy archetypical trap to fall into for folks who want to play a character they relate to, but who have felt isolated and outcast for much of their life (which unfortunately includes a lot of folks who are stereotypically drawn to ttrpgs)