Man in the Funny Hat
Hero
Player Characters, the really memorable ones, have ALWAYS been defined by their earliest experiences. With every level above 1st that a character begins at it becomes more difficult to "get into" them.
I start a PC at level 1 and by level 5 I REALLY know who the character is, how he reacts to his world, and what he wants for his future. On the other hand, if I start a character at level 8 by the time he's level 10 I STILL WON'T KNOW that character as well as I will my character that is half that level simply because the higher level character has not had as much IN-GAME fleshing out as the lower level one. And make no mistake that whatever I have written up as backstory for the character is VASTLY impacted by the characters initial in-game experiences, such that the character I'm playing 3-4 levels on is more defined by the in-game, rather than the backstory. Whenever I've written any kind of substantial background for a character 90% of it has been rendered irrelevant or simply forgotten in short order.
I start a PC at level 1 and by level 5 I REALLY know who the character is, how he reacts to his world, and what he wants for his future. On the other hand, if I start a character at level 8 by the time he's level 10 I STILL WON'T KNOW that character as well as I will my character that is half that level simply because the higher level character has not had as much IN-GAME fleshing out as the lower level one. And make no mistake that whatever I have written up as backstory for the character is VASTLY impacted by the characters initial in-game experiences, such that the character I'm playing 3-4 levels on is more defined by the in-game, rather than the backstory. Whenever I've written any kind of substantial background for a character 90% of it has been rendered irrelevant or simply forgotten in short order.