Although I smelled the troll from a mile away I just thought I'd throw in a few comments.
The problem is that they can't stop going off on these irrelevant tangents. I'll set up some adventure where
The way I look at it anything taken to such an extreme is a bad thing. IMHO role-playing is about immersing yourself in an environment and reacting to situations that you are presented with according to the way
you think your character would act. I think this is the key for me, and I think this is something that a lot of DnD players are missing. I think perhaps some people are too busy crunching numbers to see what is the best possible character they can have, rather than making do with what they do.
As far as I'm concerned I don't have a problem if you want to plan out your character, as long as your not discussing it ad nauseum at the table. I don't care what your going to be at 15th level, right now there are a bunch of mutant orcs that are attacking a village, perhaps we should concern ourselves with that?
Best bet I guess is to play in a group that has similiar styles to you. Which is difficult at best especially if your playing with friends. It's really hard to oust out a friend. But that's a WHOLE other topic.
Anyway, nuff said
Delgar