One way to approach tricksters is by defining what they are not. They are not jolly jesters, they are not comedians, and most of all they are not winners. They are broken people, there is something grievously, dangerously wrong with their psychology, and they deserve to come to a sticky end. If you can find enjoyment in that, then by all means play a trickster. Get used to the idea that a lot of your mischief will backfire on you and learn to revel in pain, but if you make the game enjoyable by what you do, then the other players and referee will let you get out of the trouble that you get yourself into. If you annoy them, especially if you annoy them out-of-character, then they will have no sympathy for you and you will wither be rolling a lot of D6es or writing up some new keywords pretty swiftly.
With all due apologies to those who don't care to hear one guy's "favourite character" yarn, here is a potted history of Gribble.
He joined the party in media res, we were travelling across the plains of Prax towards Sun County. An old man by a well is begging for coppers, so I take out a Gold Wheel, walk past him, and flip it down the well. He dashes over and leans in, so I tip him down the well shaft. "He was an assassin sent to kill us, AND YOU BELIEVE ME" (casts Lie spell). Everyone in-character believes that the old man was an assassin and that I just saved the party, everyone out-of-character just stares at me wide-mouthed for quite some time.
Some weeks later after I'd been playing the character more or less straight, we're on a boat with the GM's favourite NPC, an Aldryami sorceror. I'm bored of the little shit so one night I cast Swallow 10 and eat him. The sorceror's size-diminished Stoorworm familiar bursts forth from his backpack and sinks the boat, so I swim to shore. Stoorworm catches my scent. I can't outrun it so I cast Become Pair of Smoking Boots. Stoorworm rushes past and I escape.
Some jerk who no-one likes joins the game and decides to wind me up. Keeps waking me up with stupid questions. "What's the square root of minus one" he asks, so I say "Hold out your finger pointing down, that's minus one." *SNAP* I break his finger, "That's the square root of minus one." I get chased into the woods by his pet wolf and savagely mauled.
Finally, after saying "I killed the Crimson Bat five times AND YOU BELIEVE ME" once too often (I think I got the number of times wrong), my bluff is called and a comedy chase scene through Whitewall ensues, which ends up with me confessing all and being beheaded for serial murder.
That's just one way to play a trickster. I'm sure there are others. Most important is to tailor the character to the group. Some will let him get away with murder - literally - others will not. You have to get buy-in for the character concept from the whole group, which goes for any character really, but tricksters are especially... well, tricky.
Phil.
Don't you just hate self-referential sigs?
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