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Message: <blockquote data-quote="The Shaman" data-source="post: 5415067" data-attributes="member: 26473">A players describes his fighter as a tough, no-nonsense veteran who never backs down from a fight - and in an early encounter in the game, when threatened with a sword by a dandy, threatens to call the watch instead of drawing his own blade.That's an actual example, by the way.If a player creates a set of characteristics for a character and then ignores them when roleplaying the adventurer, then those characteristics are indeed nothing more than wishful thinking on the player's part. If you describe your character as a 'bookworm,' but never seek out libraries or buy tomes with your loot, then the backstory is wishful thinking. If you describe your character as pious but rarely make any attempt to honor the gods which isn't tied to some sort of direct benefit to the character, then the backstory is wishful thinking.The character is what the character does. Backstory is talking the talk; actual play is walking the walk.Does that make "wishful thinking" clearer for you?And as I've made repeatedly clear in this thread, players in the games I run are welcome to write as much or little as they like as a tool for running their characters.And I appreciate players who, instead of waiting for me to introduce "elements of interest," send their characters out to pursue what interests them.You want to be friends with the vicomte? Then don't give me hints about it - go make friends with the vicomte. Talk to people who know him, find out his likes and dislikes, offer him a gift, do him a favor - impress him, earn his trust and his admiration.But more importantly, don't sit around the table waiting for me to serve up adventure. If you want your character to be the protagonist, then it's incumbent on your character to be protagonistic in actual play.When you play Monopoly, do you pass out the properties to the players before the game starts? Or does everyone begin at GO and build their fortune?And yes, I have played Monopoly that way.<img src="http://www.enworld.org/forum/images/smilies/erm.png"  class="smilie" loading="lazy" alt=":erm:" title="Erm    :erm:" data-shortname=":erm:" />No, what I said was a background which isn't reflected in how a character acts is wishful thinking.Now, you're welcome to take a few more whacks at that horse, but I'm pretty sure it ain't gettin' up ever again already.</blockquote>

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