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Message: <blockquote data-quote="pming" data-source="post: 6857271" data-attributes="member: 45197">Hiya! [MENTION=6825499]Morinth[/MENTION], after reading your other replies to folks, I find myself having a bit of confusion. I understand that some players enjoy writing up background novella's for their characters, that's cool. I also understand some players enjoy hitting the books and 'learning' all the stuff their character can do and then put serious effort into learning different tricks/tactics/combo's that they can try and use if the opportunity comes up. Also cool. I also understand that some players are really heavy into the characterization/role-playing of their character during the session. Again, cool.However... my confusion is that what I am reading into your replies is that you wouldn't do any of that if you weren't getting recognition and/or a reward for it from someone else. You've said things that basically boil down to If [the DM] isn't going to reward me for something, why bother trying? To me, personally, I find this attitude very confusion. I, for example, spend hours and hours writing up info on all manner of things for my campaign world. From flora and fauna, to unusual weather patterns, to unique monsters or terrain features in some area, and everything in between. I make notes about seemingly "pointless" NPC's (e.g., a random encounter with a traveler...I may quickly jot down Widower, lost son a year ago, wandering town to town in search of him; afraid of cats, hated parents ). Stuff that the PC's are likely never to learn about because chances are they'll say "Hi! Any dangers ahead? No? Ok, thanks! Have a nice day!" and continue down the road. But that doesn't matter to me. I do this "extra" stuff because I like to. I draw maps, colour maps, I search the web for cool artwork, I paint miniatures I'm likely never going to use. Doing it is it's own reward. I see writing up a multi-page background for a character the same way. If the DM only 'skims it or gets the broad strokes', that's fine. I don't care one way or the other because I enjoyed doing it for myself. It was fun!So, when I see your posts alluding to "why bother?", and "what's the point, my PC's would all be disposable", and that sort of thing...I'm confused. Do you honestly not get any enjoyment from being creative and writing/reading/drawing stuff for fun? If you write up a three page background for a character, and nobody reads it, do you honestly feel you "wasted your time"? This is what I'm getting a feeling of. And, as I said...it's perplexing for me.Personally, I tell my players to put no more thought into their character than a few key elements. "Fenwick has no living relatives. He enjoys fine wine and non-vocal music. He tends to scribble in the margins of books, or on rocks, tables, or whatever is around when he's relaxing. He also doesn't trust elven folk...having bad teenage experiences with them. His favorite colour is dark green". That's enough for a 1st level character, IMHO. If the character lives past the first session or two, please expand as needed. I enjoy characters being created this way. It gives me, the DM, room to help integrate the character with the world, and gives the player opportunity to keep the character "fresh".Anyway, i've rambled on enough. ^_^Paul L. Ming</blockquote>

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