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Message: <blockquote data-quote="der_kluge" data-source="post: 1774366" data-attributes="member: 945">Some backstory here.We have this player in my group (who is not my group anymore, because I'm moving, but that's not important right now....)In this group, there is a player who likes to play characters with a lot of "secrets" who has a lot of "mystery" to their background.  Now, that in and of itself is fine.So, for a new game we just started, this particular player made a rogue character.  Well, I know it was a rogue, but my character didn't necessarily.  So, in this game, the DM utilized my character as a central plot hook since my character was local to the area.  So, my character gets her wagon full of brew stolen by some goblins, and so she heads to the inn and the innkeeper enlists the aid of strangers to assist me in finding the ale.  So, this is the hook to bring the party together.Now then, there is an aspect of metagaming that I'm sure we're all guilty of here.  The DM describes a room full of people, and then he pauses to allow one of the players to describe their character.  So, that particular person stands out in your (player) mind because you know that instead of it being some generic NPC, you know that it is in fact your friend sitting down at the other end of the table.  So, you will invariably "hook up" with this person, not because it necessarily makes sense from a role-playing standpoint, but because you know that that's where the GM wants this story to go.  I mean, you *could* totally and completely ignore this person, and that may be what happens, but at some you know you're going to hook up.  So, everyone metagames it a little bit, and then next thing you know - you're an adventuring party (unless you're deliberately attempting to be an ass to the DM, of course).So, in our game, the DM encourages some players to enlist their aid for my character by focusing on aspects of their characters that he knew would motivate them.  So, everything works out, and before you know it, we're walking out to the ditch where my character woke up that morning to see if they could find some clues.But this other player's miniature wasn't one of them.  In fact, this player wasn't participating in this endeavor at all.  So, I'm thinking to myself, "where is this person?  Are they going to join us?"After a while, we encounter some goblins and a few orcs, and we engage in some melee.  During this, this ragamuffin scoundrel of a character moves from the shadows in the trees, and shoots some arrows at an orc or two.  Afterwards, we meet this individual, and they're covered in dirt, and we have a hard time determining even if it's a boy or girl.  And we can't get a straight answer from them, and about all we get is a name.  When asked why they were following us, all we get is a *shrug*.So, back at the inn, we're celebrating the recovery of the stolen ale and mead, and the ragamuffin scoundrel is stealing food from plates.So, I'm asking.... aside from throwing out the metagame card, *what* motivation would our group have for allowing this filthy beggar into our group?  Oddly enough, in the last game, this player's character was the absolute last one to join our group, having come down out of a tree once a roving band of orcs had decided to go away, and we all found ourselves (independently) hiding in the same copse of trees.  Even then, this character was totally stand-offish, hesitant with answers to questions, and generally just really anti-social.</blockquote>

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