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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Jfdlsjfd" data-source="post: 8460611" data-attributes="member: 42856">My take on this topic...1. I pitch the campaign's idea before the game (usually by mail) in broad strokes to the players. During session 0, players make characters together and I require them to provide one reason to be interested in the upcoming events. Yes, I know it dodges the question, but I actively avoid having characters that don't fit. "Sure, everyone is creating member of the Watch, you can be anyone but please find a reason to get involved with the mysterious serial killer that I pitched. It doesn't restrict who you can play as long as there is some kind of link. It helps avoid "hey I am a haughty wood elf, why should I care about the big city being destroyed by a wizard? It's actually eco-friendly".2. I also reward good behaviour by offering characters arcs. I am not convinced by how RotFM handled "secrets" of the players, but I do something along that way: when presenting the setting, I also provide a few hints on who will be involved, which power groups will be active in this particular campaign, and if the players take one of these hooks, or propose something that will fit as well [the goal is to help, not constrain], I will make some effort to use that to give them a particular spotlight time. If they create a loner that don't fit, he'll stay a loner as wishes.3. If there is a character concept that don't fit, it can be either the sign of a player being not interested in the campaign (if you pitch a classic dungeon crawl and someone comes up with a pacifistic barbarian who eschew fighting at all cost, the problem isn't salvageable and should be dealt by disussing with the player)4. Assuming everyone is in good faith, I'd try to find out what are the core idea of the player concept to try to make him fit. If he wants to play an elf in an elfless world, I'd ask what is important about being an elf to try to find something to accomodate him.</blockquote>

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