What first in your TTRPGing - Story, Game or Character?

[MNblockhead]

I would consider cops and robbers a game though even though there are no real mechanics rules and no winner or loser. As a kid I'd play Battlestar Galactica and Super Friends and such and consider it a game.

Except the rules emerge through play. Watch a group of kids play "cops and robbers" and you'll see an argument arise. "I shot you." "Nuh-uh." And some mechanic will emerge to resolve where you've been shot. Okay, so now we have some general agreement on determining when you've been shot. So...what happens when you are shot? Are you dead? Wounded? Is one shot enough? If you are dead, how long do you have to remain dead until you can get back in the game?

One of the great joys for this old gamer in watching children play is seeing how, out of the the chaos of child play, new games emerge and evolve.

 

[DEFCON 1]

As a DM and a player I believe I am Story first.

DM is the same reason most of the others have given. But for me as a player? The first thing I always do is find out the setting of the game, where the characters are starting from and why they will be together, and then creating a character that fits really well into that hole.

The last thing I want to do is make a character that has absolutely no connection to the game we are about to play. Because I do not find the attempt to create an explanation of why this character is here with this group doing this thing to be a story I have any interest in spending time on. I'd rather get my character involved with the story immediately! If we are going to be mercenaries working for an evil baron, then I will make a character that has connections to the barony. And a connection to the mercenary captain. And grew up in the area so I has connections to the people and places we will be adventuring in.

That gives me a creative spark. And I find my characters to be more interesting when all is said and done.