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<blockquote data-quote="DEFCON 1" data-source="post: 7531593" data-attributes="member: 7006"><p>I voted #4, because I'm a firm believer that players come up with better and more compelling/interesting characters when they actually have boundaries they need to fit their ideas into. And quite frankly that only helps advance and improve their creativity in the long run.</p><p></p><p>When I create a campaign and an overarching theme for that campaign... I will supply the background, the campaign bible, and the "rules" we are going to be using for embodying the characters in the world. And I usually can tell which players have and which players have not read the documents when it comes time to start creating characters. And more often than not, if a player comes up with an idea that is not typical or standard or an obvious fit for the world... <em>but</em> they have still given bits and pieces of reasoning why or how the campaign world could produce the potential idea, I'll usually go along with them on it and see where it leads.</p><p></p><p>Case in point, I just started an Eberron campaign, and one of the players had seen on D&D Beyond the idea of a chronomancer and really liked the idea. Now Eberron does not have a standard place for chronomancy, and the setting itself has very little (if any) indication that time magic is a "thing" in the world. But the player also then mentioned that he saw in the campaign booklet I sent that aberrant dragonmarks produced weird, crazy, and potentially deadly magical effects, and that most regular people and the dragonmarked houses especially would fear someone with an aberrant mark because the magic was unknowable.</p><p></p><p>So not only did this tell me that this player had read the campaign bible, but he had put a little bit of thought into how chrononmancy might actually have a place with Eberron. And thus I didn't dismiss it out of hand. I worked the idea with him, and now he is in fact playing an aberrant dragonmarked sorcerer whose mark produces all manner of time magic effects (the "spells" the sorcerer has).</p><p></p><p>Counter this to another player who said they wanted to play a half-elf... one that was half-human and half drow... and they thought the dragonmarks were cool and wanted one of those for his character too. And when I questioned them about how they thought a half-drow would have gained a khoravar dragonmark based upon who the khoravar as a race were... it was obvious they hadn't read anything from the bible about who it was that acquired dragonmarks, nor where the drow originated from, nor the idea of the khoravar being a true-breeding race in Eberron, nor any character reason why/where/when a human and drow would get together to produce a child, nor how a character such as that would actually be a member of House Medani. Instead, it was more than they just had this character idea of "Half-human / half-drow!" in their back pocket and wanted to play it regardless of the setting they played it in, and heard that "dragonmarks" were a special magic thing that were rare, so having one would be "cool".</p><p></p><p>And that's the kind of thing that I won't just accept out of hand. That a player has a character concept that they've came up with outside of any game, and just wants to squish that square peg into any round hole they come upon. No. Sorry. If you had read the campaign bible you would see why "half-human / half-drow" and "Dragonmarked member of House Medani" do not actually go together as a concept within Eberron. You would go with one or the other. Or if you DID want to play both of these things together in a single character... <em>at the very least</em> you'd actually come up with and and present me the convoluted and pretty unlikely character backstory that might actually result in a character such as this.</p><p></p><p>But the player didn't even do that... didn't even attempt to justify this character appearing in this world. Which told me they hadn't bothered to read anything and see why this character concept is not at all a logical idea for the world. And thus I put the kibosh on it.</p><p></p><p>There are literally millions of different character ideas that actually fit within the world a DM is presenting to you. Pick one, even if it doesn't seem "original". Because guess what? You want to truly be creative? Take an idea you don't think is original and work it so that it <em>becomes</em> original. You don't need to be a quarter-elf / quarter-goblin / half-tiefling barbarian/monk multiclass with only one arm who saw their entire family and tribe slaughtered so is on a quest for vengeance against a group of people for whom the DM has already indicated is *not* a focal point of the campaign. You can be a human fighter member of the city guard and make that character eminently more memorable by actually being a direct part in the story the DM is leading you through. You can write down whatever ridiculous combination of things you want on a character sheet in an effort to be "original"... but that means nothing at all if you aren't going to roleplay it to match.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="DEFCON 1, post: 7531593, member: 7006"] I voted #4, because I'm a firm believer that players come up with better and more compelling/interesting characters when they actually have boundaries they need to fit their ideas into. And quite frankly that only helps advance and improve their creativity in the long run. When I create a campaign and an overarching theme for that campaign... I will supply the background, the campaign bible, and the "rules" we are going to be using for embodying the characters in the world. And I usually can tell which players have and which players have not read the documents when it comes time to start creating characters. And more often than not, if a player comes up with an idea that is not typical or standard or an obvious fit for the world... [I]but[/I] they have still given bits and pieces of reasoning why or how the campaign world could produce the potential idea, I'll usually go along with them on it and see where it leads. Case in point, I just started an Eberron campaign, and one of the players had seen on D&D Beyond the idea of a chronomancer and really liked the idea. Now Eberron does not have a standard place for chronomancy, and the setting itself has very little (if any) indication that time magic is a "thing" in the world. But the player also then mentioned that he saw in the campaign booklet I sent that aberrant dragonmarks produced weird, crazy, and potentially deadly magical effects, and that most regular people and the dragonmarked houses especially would fear someone with an aberrant mark because the magic was unknowable. So not only did this tell me that this player had read the campaign bible, but he had put a little bit of thought into how chrononmancy might actually have a place with Eberron. And thus I didn't dismiss it out of hand. I worked the idea with him, and now he is in fact playing an aberrant dragonmarked sorcerer whose mark produces all manner of time magic effects (the "spells" the sorcerer has). Counter this to another player who said they wanted to play a half-elf... one that was half-human and half drow... and they thought the dragonmarks were cool and wanted one of those for his character too. And when I questioned them about how they thought a half-drow would have gained a khoravar dragonmark based upon who the khoravar as a race were... it was obvious they hadn't read anything from the bible about who it was that acquired dragonmarks, nor where the drow originated from, nor the idea of the khoravar being a true-breeding race in Eberron, nor any character reason why/where/when a human and drow would get together to produce a child, nor how a character such as that would actually be a member of House Medani. Instead, it was more than they just had this character idea of "Half-human / half-drow!" in their back pocket and wanted to play it regardless of the setting they played it in, and heard that "dragonmarks" were a special magic thing that were rare, so having one would be "cool". And that's the kind of thing that I won't just accept out of hand. That a player has a character concept that they've came up with outside of any game, and just wants to squish that square peg into any round hole they come upon. No. Sorry. If you had read the campaign bible you would see why "half-human / half-drow" and "Dragonmarked member of House Medani" do not actually go together as a concept within Eberron. You would go with one or the other. Or if you DID want to play both of these things together in a single character... [I]at the very least[/I] you'd actually come up with and and present me the convoluted and pretty unlikely character backstory that might actually result in a character such as this. But the player didn't even do that... didn't even attempt to justify this character appearing in this world. Which told me they hadn't bothered to read anything and see why this character concept is not at all a logical idea for the world. And thus I put the kibosh on it. There are literally millions of different character ideas that actually fit within the world a DM is presenting to you. Pick one, even if it doesn't seem "original". Because guess what? You want to truly be creative? Take an idea you don't think is original and work it so that it [I]becomes[/I] original. You don't need to be a quarter-elf / quarter-goblin / half-tiefling barbarian/monk multiclass with only one arm who saw their entire family and tribe slaughtered so is on a quest for vengeance against a group of people for whom the DM has already indicated is *not* a focal point of the campaign. You can be a human fighter member of the city guard and make that character eminently more memorable by actually being a direct part in the story the DM is leading you through. You can write down whatever ridiculous combination of things you want on a character sheet in an effort to be "original"... but that means nothing at all if you aren't going to roleplay it to match. [/QUOTE]
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