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Message: <blockquote data-quote="The Shaman" data-source="post: 5292539" data-attributes="member: 26473">I think that's a silly way of looking at it, in my humble opinion, but that's neither here nor there.  The idea that a character must have pre-existing connections to npcs as a pre-requisite for engaging the adventurer with the game-world doesn't hold up, in my experience.D'Artagnan is only one example; Diogenes, from Baroness Orzcy's The Laughing Cavalier and The First Sir Percy, begins the story as a mercenary with no connections to useful npcs in the setting; by the end of the first story he's routed a rebel leader, gained a fortune, and won the girl. The events of the story, of Diogenes' adventure, are what matter.Players can - and at least in the games I run must - make connections in the game-world. Non-player characters need to be assessed constantly - can this person help me or hurt me? how do I gain favor, or at least avoid ire (assuming attracting ire is not the goal at the moment - finding enemies is pretty much the easiest thing to do, after all)? I provide the players with a 'target-rich environment' of npcs to facilitate this, but I have no preconceptions about what the players and their characters will do with these building blocks. You create the adventure by your choices.</blockquote>