D&D General Are your PCs "Adventurers" or just get caught up in the Adventure?

[Lanefan]

"Other" - for two reasons:

One, it depends on the character. Some are (or aspire to be) professional "adventurers" right from the start or even before, while others just kind of blunder into it.

Two, it's often both at once with the same character - a character starts out without any real intention of becoming a full-time adventurer but after a few adventures has fully bought into the lifestyle of the profession and if asked its occupation would say "adventurer" instead of "baker" or "artist" or "jeweller" or whatever else it was before.

 

[Hriston]

I don’t see an option in pretty much any edition of D&D for building a non-adventurer. Even rules for characters at level zero (e.g. Greyhawk Adventures) focus on them becoming adventurers. If you follow the rules for character creation, you create an adventurer.

 

[Lanefan]

I don’t see an option in pretty much any edition of D&D for building a non-adventurer. Even rules for characters at level zero (e.g. Greyhawk Adventures) focus on them becoming adventurers. If you follow the rules for character creation, you create an adventurer.

Game-mechanically, perhaps, but personality-wise?

I think it's the personality/characterization piece that's being polled here.

 

[Lord Mhoram]

I build them to be adventures, but their backstory is that they wanted to be an adventurer since they could walk (or swing a stick). So completely in character and history, and completely ready for the game when it starts.

 

[Charlaquin]

It isn't. You have options besides 1 and 2.

But they’re all 1 and 2 in various combinations. Still presenting 1 and 2 as dichotomous options which can be combined in varying degrees.

 

[DND_Reborn]

But they’re all 1 and 2 in various combinations. Still presenting 1 and 2 as dichotomous options which can be combined in varying degrees.

Did you miss the "Other, please explain" option...? Which covers everything else.

 

[Shiroiken]

Depends on the campaign. I have 2 active characters currently, a Far Traveler Dwarf Nature Cleric and a Mountain's Witness Fiendpact Warlock. The Cleric was designed with adventuring in mind, since he's on the run from an undesirable marriage to a harridan (his official excuse is seeking out all types of grain to compare for beer making). The Warlock, however, isn't designed as anything. He's a vagabond who's just swept up in current events, but that doesn't make him ineffective to the group.

 

[humble minion]

It ... depends. Though I think it's not easy to make PCs who are notably poor adventurers at level 1 unless you're going completely against type stat-wise - a low Int wizard, or a high-Str rogue who uses non-finesse melee weapons.

My current paladin kinda has a built-in reason to be adventuring, because being out and about doing righteous things and fighting monsters is what paladins are FOR. I did make some less-than-adventure-optimal background choices though - hermit background from an upbringing in a remote monastery orphanage gives him a fairly useless Medicine proficiency, and his mediocre Wisdom and no Insight or Perception proficiency have made his adventuring life hard from time to time. But that ... kinda works, for the character? He WAS brought up in a remote monastery and is a bit naive and easily gulled. And it's become a fun party joke when (in a fairly diplomacy-heavy campaign) I roll yet another 4 for an insight check and am completely convinced by whatever line some shifty NPC is trying to feed us today.

The next PC will be more of a challenge. The idea is a seer who tries to read the future in the stars and the sky. It'll be a druid, but she'll be from a fairly sheltered background on Evermeet so i can't justify giving her Survival (which is a niche you'd usually expect a druid to cover), and I'm planning on deliberately avoiding the plant/animal stuff on the druid spell list and try to only cast air/sky/radiance/divination/healing etc spells to stay in theme. We'll see how it pans out...

 

[Hriston]

Game-mechanically, perhaps, but personality-wise?

I think it's the personality/characterization piece that's being polled here.

What kind of personality is an adventurer supposed to have? I think the game supports the PCs having a wide variety of personalities. I take most of my cues for the personalities of my PCs from their backgrounds and personal characteristics including their personality traits.

ETA: You can play a character with the personality of Bilbo Baggins or one with the personality of Aragorn. Either way, it need not be reflected mechanically.

 

[Yora]

In my campaigns, all PCs must be adventurers.
It's one of the two requirements I have for the personality of PCs: They must want to go into the wilderness to search for treasures, and they must want to do it with the other PCs. Otherwise there's no point in bringing that character to the campaign.