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Message: <blockquote data-quote="The Shaman" data-source="post: 5292579" data-attributes="member: 26473">Remember, this isn't a literary critique here - we're talking about what works in a roleplaying game. Or at least I am, which is why I think you're reading way more into this than is necessary.A connection who tells him he can't help D'Artagnan to join the Musketeers, until the Gascon first proves his worth.His aid is limited in scope. D'Artagnan must adventure successfully in order to become a Muskteer.I would say that yes, you're wrong.No, he's "not completely rootless" - he's a character of his time and place, as I would expect most roleplaying game characters to be - but he's not connected to the other characters save one at the start of the tale, and that one connection plays only a peripheral role in all that follows.There is an argument to be made that the eponymous musketeers of the story are not protagonists, but rather supporting characters of the lone protagonist, D'Artagnan. But bringing in the other musketeers, or insisting that the tale is all that exists, is an attempt to avoid the implications relevant to roleplaying games, that a lengthy backstory and ties to the npc community are not a pre-requisite to engaging with the setting.I think a good character background should follow the advice of a funeral announcement - "No flowers, by request" - and I prefer that the players focus their attention on what we do around the table together; let the events of the game become your character's history. Make friends, make enemies, get blooded, intrigue, connive, and do it in actual play, together, all of us, as a shared experience.</blockquote>

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