NOW LIVE! Today's the day you meet your new best friend. You don’t have to leave Wolfy behind... In 'Pets & Sidekicks' your companions level up with you!

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Message: <blockquote data-quote="fuindordm" data-source="post: 6424849" data-attributes="member: 5435">I hope you don't mind my playing devil's advocate here.  I understand your perspective, and I've had phases like that too. But I'm not in that phase currently, so here's an opposing perspective.I think this is a non-problem. It's more evidence of your changing tastes as a gamer and storyteller than an issue with the game or your players.From the player's perspective, there are pros and cons to making a PC with strong ties to the world.PROS: potential spotlight time in the campaign, more investment in the character, non-mercenary motives for adventuring, more authorshipCONS: you may be forced into the spotlight, role-playing your personal goals may introduce conflict in the party, waste of effort to think too hard about backstory as opposed to letting PC personality and ties grow organicallyPersonally, when I make a PC I have two major goals: give him or her a reason to be traveling and adventuring while getting along well with other party members, and come up with a handful of interesting personality/background hooks that I can use to drive RP decisions. But I recognize that the DM has a story to tell too, and as part of playing well with others this means my PC should start with vague enough goals to line up with the campaign.  This sort of character might come across as a lone wanderer when the design goal is to be someone who has a good reason to participate in the DMs story. Strong ties to the setting can come later.And as a DM, I have had the opposite experience of players who, while not necessarily strongly linked to the setting, have strong personal goals that introduce party conflict or derail the campaign (my PC wouldn't go on that adventure you prepared!).So overall, as a gamer, my preference as player and DM is to let the ties between the PCs and the setting emerge organically from play.  I'm absolutely fine if all the PCs begin as murderhobos, lone wanderers, or easy stereotypes as long as they all want to play together.  The rest can come later. Some PCs will accept the hand of friendship from NPCs and tie themselves to the factions in play; others will refuse, but continue adventuring out of friendship with the other PCs. Either is fine, and I don't find their characters boring because the players made that choice.  The living history of the campaign is what gives the PCs their unique flavor, 10 times more than the backstory they wrote when they rolled up the character.</blockquote>

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