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<blockquote data-quote="Beginning of the End" data-source="post: 5476137" data-attributes="member: 55271">It seems to me that there are two separate issues here which are easily tangled together:First, there's the question of who should have narrative control over a portion of the game world that they create. If the player creates an NPC as part of their character background, should it be understood that they have &quot;ownership&quot; over that NPC? Lots of RPGs say &quot;the GM controls all the NPCs&quot;, but that doesn't make it feel any less wrong when a character that I created suddenly feels as if they're acting out of character.Second, how far does mucking about with NPCs from my character's past actually infringe onto my narrative control over my PC? If you take a character that I envisioned as loving and kind and play them as traitorous and cruel, how much does that change my own self-image of my character as the person who could have been friends with a person like that? (Or duped like that by the character.)I used to bump heads over this issue on a semi-frequent basis. But now that the discussion comes up, I realize we haven't had these issues since we started treating character creation as a more collaborative process. I don't know if that's because the collaboration between player and GM results in a sense of shared ownership; if it's because the GM has a better understanding of how the player envisions their character; or if it just affords the GM a chance to make sure the plot seeds he wants are planted from the get-go.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Beginning of the End, post: 5476137, member: 55271"] It seems to me that there are two separate issues here which are easily tangled together: First, there's the question of who should have narrative control over a portion of the game world that they create. If the player creates an NPC as part of their character background, should it be understood that they have "ownership" over that NPC? Lots of RPGs say "the GM controls all the NPCs", but that doesn't make it feel any less wrong when a character that I created suddenly feels as if they're acting out of character. Second, how far does mucking about with NPCs from my character's past actually infringe onto my narrative control over my PC? If you take a character that I envisioned as loving and kind and play them as traitorous and cruel, how much does that change my own self-image of my character as the person who could have been friends with a person like that? (Or duped like that by the character.) I used to bump heads over this issue on a semi-frequent basis. But now that the discussion comes up, I realize we haven't had these issues since we started treating character creation as a more collaborative process. I don't know if that's because the collaboration between player and GM results in a sense of shared ownership; if it's because the GM has a better understanding of how the player envisions their character; or if it just affords the GM a chance to make sure the plot seeds he wants are planted from the get-go. [/QUOTE]

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