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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Pedantic" data-source="post: 8994577" data-attributes="member: 6690965">I feel like I've seen this dichotomy a lot in the wild and it's caused problems at some of my tables (and in other role-playing contexts). I think it comes off a little understated here, and you're describing two pretty different flavors of character/player relationship.You have players that are coming to a scenario with a character that exists as a complete entity entirely in their mind already. They may further define that character, or learn/create things about that character in reaction to situations, but the fundamental point of the character is not growth, but expression. They want to experience a bunch of unexpected situations because they want prompts and opportunities to explicate their character further. Sylias is a thief, and it's interesting to define that further as he takes it doesn't take things when given an opportunity. Then you have characters that are specifically looking to change. They tend to be more embryonic, having fewer defined traits, and often present hooks specifically to a GM, with the goal of encouraging specific story beats they want to react to. The player here usually has a narrative plan. They don't need to know the whole story, but they know the progression will be "shy->friendly" or that the character will be different after a specific trauma/problem is resolved somehow. They may be looking to put weight on a given roll, or to the outcome of some mechanic to determine precisely how they change in response to the stimulus, but the player will be looking for an event (or waiting for a planned one from a backstory) to resolve so they can announce how they're different now.The commonality here is that both players are not generally amenable to being made different by outside forces. The player is making the decisions about the character's internal world at all times. The tension comes in when either a growth focused player doesn't get the narrative they want, or doesn't get it fast enough and feels trapped in an earlier form of the character, or when an expressive player feels like the narrative is too tied up in another character to give them enough space to react and play.</blockquote>

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