Key concept

[RangerWickett]

Oh, I'm not trying to go off topic. I'm just ramblin'. And I want you to consider that most people don't consider questions like that, so asking that question about characters might be harder to answer, on an existentialist level, at least, than you'd think.

 

[cdsaint]

I'm trying to put together guidelines to help players who are stuck put together cogent answers.

The <community> tag helps to define the scale of the game, and helps point up problems if different players have different ideas of what the scale should be.

I can see that. Plus I suppose the original wording might be construed as insulting by some folks. So I suppose after thinking about it your refinement probably is the better way to go.

But I personally still like the original question best, simply because as a player I do want my character to matter, and with that question you're giving me free rein to tell you why my character matters.

Chris

 

[Pielorinho]

A similar, but slightly different question:

In what way is your character going to be awesome?

This can vary:
-I'm going to be capable of cutting to the heart of mysteries and solving them.
-I'm going to be the rootinest tootinest marksman this side of Wyatt Earp.
-I'm going to be a walking encyclopedia of knowledge on the undead.
-I'm going to avenge the massacre of my knitting circle.
-I'm going to rebuild the faith of the Grandmother Goddess amongst the dwarves.

Phrasing it this way might give powergamers a good way to answer the question, too.
Daniel

 

[rbingham2000]

All three of us in Spatulalad's Badlands game on RPGNet have pretty much carved out our niches in the game.

Amado G's Man in Black is the calm and in-control badass of the crew. He's also the only one in the crew who can use a gun, since the rest of us are martial arts types.

I play the Boy Named Sue, and he's the mad dog brawler of the crew. He typically comes into his fights pissed as all hell (usually after being laughed at about his name) and mainly uses his fists and whatever improvised weapons happen to be on hand.

Deacon Blues's Big Jim McLanahan is the exotic martial artist of the crew, and likes to clean house using powerful kicks and crazy maneuvers out of a kung fu movie.

We're currently in the middle of our first fight, where the Man in Black and the bad guys' leader are going mano a mano on each other while Sue and Big Jim are cleaning house on the mooks. Among the more interesting bits were Sue hurling a bar stool up into the balcony and sending the mook up there crashing down into the bad guys' table, and Big Jim polishing off three mooks with a flying triple-kick.

And now we've got a lunatic with a chainsaw joining the party, and things are gonna get slightly hairy.

 

[cdsaint]

-I'm going to avenge the massacre of my knitting circle.

Oh, sure, the knitting needle has the nice extended crit range, but for REAL damage you can't beat the crochet hook! x4 crits!

Chris

 

[jmucchiello]

Why do you matter?

Ask my wife.

 

[Dogbrain]

A great quartet of characters:

Brett Riverboat: Knifeman
The Riviera Kid
Dangerous Dan McGrew, barefisted fighter, extraordinaire
Sheriff Kryten, drunk with a heart of gold

 

[knitnerd]

Oh, sure, the knitting needle has the nice extended crit range, but for REAL damage you can't beat the crochet hook! x4 crits!

Chris

You have never seen my antique size 000 double pointed steel needles. A foot long, less than a milimeter wide,very sharp. The rogue in our party also used one as a lockpick on a very thick dwarven door.

 

[Kichwas]

And I want you to consider that most people don't consider questions like that, so asking that question about characters might be harder to answer, on an existentialist level, at least, than you'd think.

As a writer, I think of it like this:

"Why is this character one of the protagonists?"

I could ask players "Why is this character important to the campaign?" or
"Why is this character a PC and not an NPC?", but those players who are not writers would probably not see the connections I am seeing in wanting to ask the question that way...

I would likely be asked back "Tell me more on what the campaign is going to be about," or "you're the GM, aren't you the one who knows that?"

Questions that miss the point of what I would desire from a player if I asked this, but finding better wording so far escapes me as I think about this issue.