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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Mallus" data-source="post: 5810005" data-attributes="member: 3887">I didn't mean to come off like I didn't finish reading your post -- let me elaborate a bit.Character growth carries a lot of implications, related to how the term is used in lit/film/drama criticism, which don't apply to RPG PCs. The defining characteristic in RPG play is, well, play. Messing around in the fictional environment. A PC defined as a coward may suddenly want to pull that big shiny red lever in the dungeon wall, because at that moment, the players wants to "play" with it. See what happens. For whatever reason, and regardless of how the PC was previously characterized.(in my experience, this occurs a lot during RPG play) Characterization becomes secondary to pure play,  the sheer pleasure of doing <s>shi</s> stuff in a fictional space. I'm all for good characterization, for RPGs as being a kind of living, collaborative fiction, but I realize they're also games, and the more chaotic imperatives of play --in the Grand Theft Auto sandbox sense-- are going to to assert themselves. Therefore any definition of role-playing pegged to consistency is at odds with the principle allure of the game.</blockquote>