Kannik
Legend
In a recent campaign our DM made a couple of tweaks to character building and progression that I found to really enhance the flavour of our game, and I thought I’d share them here. They might not work in all campaign styles, but they may be of use and open up some possibilities for what you’re up to. While these tweaks were done in a 4e game, I’d say they’d work fine in most editions or PF.
The first change was that our DM directed us to choose both an RP race and a mechanics race. It is pretty much as it sounds: your character was your RP race (elf, human, etc), but you built them as though they were the mechanics race. Any special mechanics, such as a dragonborn’s breath weapon, had to be explained in an RP sense. Continuing that dragonborn example, as an elven mage your "breath weapon" could be another one of your spells, or as a human paladin the "breath weapon" could be one of your special holy smites.
It was a bit of an adjustment to me at first, so different from the usual strict racial construction, but once we got into it I found it very nifty. The “feel” of the races were not diminished in any way, with the majority of the feel being provided by RP and personality – an elf still felt like an elf. And when that extra layer of special ability from the mechanics race was tied into a character’s class or upbringing or background, it made for a richer character concept. Even if two PCs had the same special abilities from the same mechanics race, but with different RP races, that each of these similar effects were being produced by different story reasons actually worked to differentiate the characters even more rather than make them seem similar.
The second thing the DM instituted was in regards to magic items. 3e/PF/4e campaigns can be awash in magic items, and that’s cool but we found it could lead to a Christmas tree ornament effect where a good amount of the character’s utility or oomph came from accessorizing rather than from some developed ability. Similar to races, what the DM did here was use the mechanics of magic items without them actually having to be (RP wise it was our choice) magic items. In effect it was turning many of the magic items into the same idea as “boons”, albeit still using up item slots and etc for mechanics/balance purposes. The DM still provided explicit magic items as well, though these were considered rare and special and usually had specific, story, or extraordinary power to them, and thus kept the air of something special and unique.
Allowing the effects of magic items to be tied to the character as an ability they’ve developed, rather than just because they’re wearing some boots, worked wonders to boost the investment of the player in their character and to having the character feel more complete. For example, our runecaster (itself using the mechanics of the artificer with the flavour of dwarven rune magic) carved himself certain runic stone tablets that he wore as part of his kit (he was covered head to toe in small stone tablets) that gained him protection from elemental effects; mechanically it was a cloak that provided bonuses to defenses from elemental attacks. For the runecaster to develop this ability as a protection to themselves fit the flavour of the class/character very well, a grand development of their growing skill, and we liked that feel more than the more mundane luck of finding and relying on item X.
All together for us in our group, the flavour and interestingness of each character grew from these tweaks, and the flavour of the world (especially vis-a-vis magic items) also hewed closer to the style we wanted to play, all while keeping it easy by sticking to the established rules and expectations (in modules, monsters, and etc) therein. We have lots of fun with it.
gamingly,
Kannik
The first change was that our DM directed us to choose both an RP race and a mechanics race. It is pretty much as it sounds: your character was your RP race (elf, human, etc), but you built them as though they were the mechanics race. Any special mechanics, such as a dragonborn’s breath weapon, had to be explained in an RP sense. Continuing that dragonborn example, as an elven mage your "breath weapon" could be another one of your spells, or as a human paladin the "breath weapon" could be one of your special holy smites.
It was a bit of an adjustment to me at first, so different from the usual strict racial construction, but once we got into it I found it very nifty. The “feel” of the races were not diminished in any way, with the majority of the feel being provided by RP and personality – an elf still felt like an elf. And when that extra layer of special ability from the mechanics race was tied into a character’s class or upbringing or background, it made for a richer character concept. Even if two PCs had the same special abilities from the same mechanics race, but with different RP races, that each of these similar effects were being produced by different story reasons actually worked to differentiate the characters even more rather than make them seem similar.
The second thing the DM instituted was in regards to magic items. 3e/PF/4e campaigns can be awash in magic items, and that’s cool but we found it could lead to a Christmas tree ornament effect where a good amount of the character’s utility or oomph came from accessorizing rather than from some developed ability. Similar to races, what the DM did here was use the mechanics of magic items without them actually having to be (RP wise it was our choice) magic items. In effect it was turning many of the magic items into the same idea as “boons”, albeit still using up item slots and etc for mechanics/balance purposes. The DM still provided explicit magic items as well, though these were considered rare and special and usually had specific, story, or extraordinary power to them, and thus kept the air of something special and unique.
Allowing the effects of magic items to be tied to the character as an ability they’ve developed, rather than just because they’re wearing some boots, worked wonders to boost the investment of the player in their character and to having the character feel more complete. For example, our runecaster (itself using the mechanics of the artificer with the flavour of dwarven rune magic) carved himself certain runic stone tablets that he wore as part of his kit (he was covered head to toe in small stone tablets) that gained him protection from elemental effects; mechanically it was a cloak that provided bonuses to defenses from elemental attacks. For the runecaster to develop this ability as a protection to themselves fit the flavour of the class/character very well, a grand development of their growing skill, and we liked that feel more than the more mundane luck of finding and relying on item X.
All together for us in our group, the flavour and interestingness of each character grew from these tweaks, and the flavour of the world (especially vis-a-vis magic items) also hewed closer to the style we wanted to play, all while keeping it easy by sticking to the established rules and expectations (in modules, monsters, and etc) therein. We have lots of fun with it.
gamingly,
Kannik
The mechanics stay the same, so the breath weapon is still a minor action attack encounter power, only the in-game story for the ability changes. The image of a paladin calling down the might of his deity in a fiery burst with the swing of his mighty hammer was just a strong visual for me... 
