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How do you address the issue that the transition to initiative affects surprise, and surprise is (arguably) an in-world phenomenon? Specifically, if you transition to initiative before a hidden character even tries to take a noticable action (maybe they're casting subtle buff spells, or readying...

From my perspective the statement you quoted reflects the current main point of contention, with posters disagreeing whether it is possible to learn anything about a character one is authoring. I am unsure, however, whether the disagreement is substantive or merely reflects differing usages of...

I apologize for being imprecise. I should have said that in the BW example the character's political affiliation was determined by a game mechanic, rather than by a roll. I am aware of the play examples you posted, but to my understanding they were offered in the context of a different...

This branch of the conversation started with @Aldarc mentioning mechanics that change one's character concept. My understanding is that many posters, including @Oofta, are continuing to discuss such mechanics at the same level of generality, referring to such mechanics collectively using various...

At my table I've just gone and houseruled that Barbarians get the 15th level ability "Persistent Rage" at level one. In addition to the first-round problems with Rage and surprise, my table tends to feature more wide-ranging encounters than is typical, which was causing Babarians to lose Rage...

From my standpoint you are misundstanding what the authors mean when they say it feels like a character was writing itself. And by asserting that such statements are false you are problematically substituting your own judgement for the authors' report of what the writing process feels like to...

I see the increased objectivity of relying on a game mechanic to determine the impact on the character as impeding the believability of the result, not as enhancing it.

No one is confusing anything when an author says that it feels like a character is writing itself. It's a statement about feelings and perception. Bold emphasis added. Why does what explore "should" mean even enter the picture here? If we agree that we're using the word "explore" differently...

From my standpoint I entirely agree that it is more believable that the character is impacted by events in the fiction rather than that the character has perfect control over their emotional responses. I merely think that leaving it up to the player who best understands the character to decide...

I disagree that the meaning of the "the character is writing itself" is that it was easy for the author to write that character. From personal conversations with authors who have expressed such sentiments, my understanding is that those authors were expressing that they were surprised (both in...

Are you claiming that it's not litterally true that those authors' characters write themselves? Or are you claiming it's not true that those authors feel that the characters are writing themselves? If the former, sure. It's trivially true that fictional characters aren't writing anything, but...

When I make a character I don't have a plan for what direction they're going to develop. I make decisions as the character in the moment based on the IC situation. Particularly if I'm strongly immersed, I can be surprised by the decisions I make for the character (especially upon reflection once...

Thanks for clarifying! In this post @Bill Zebub astutely noted that I was framing my dislike for mechanics that change a character concept in terms of experiential roleplaying. In other words, my concern with such mechanics is that as a player they make my character feel more disjointed...

Could you clarify your question please? I'm not sure what the word "this" is referring to in your question. (Normally I would assume it refers to the quoted post, but it's not clear to me how your new question connects to my reply to you.)

In the post I was originally responding to, @Aldarc said: This statement reads to me as covering the whole gamut of mechanics that directly change a character concept (as opposed to having the mechanics control what happens, and the player determining the impact on the character). Accordingly...

Except that if the Barbarian wins initiative and elects not to Rage because they don't see any enemies, they're surprised and can't do something defensive like look for cover or search since they don't get an action that turn. I think the basic problem is that the resource required to activate...

There's also an expenditure of the DM's social capital involved in creating player-facing houserules, one that scales with the length of one's houserule document. (At least if you expect players to read it and learn it!)

I was specifically referring how such a character feels to me to play, as opposed to any sort of external view of that character. I'm confident that just about any system could lead to a character whose portrayal from the outside seems fluid, in-depth, and organic in the hands of a skilled...

You joke, but the 7th level Barbarian ability is problematic even in non-degenerate situations. If the Barbarian happens to win initiative when they are surprised, it is highly likely that their Rage will end immediately, as the hidden enemies can't be effectively attacked and the enemies...

Thanks! I appreciate hearing your approach. I think such situations are more likely to come up at my table (particularly with the PCs in the role of the ambushers) so the question is probably more pertinent at my table than at yours.