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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Lanefan" data-source="post: 4720594" data-attributes="member: 29398">And to expand on FireLance's notes a bit...And here's where the game itself can help.  There needs to be a few pages in the PHB (or equivalent) devoted to personality ideas - both good *and* bad - and how to play them.  Further, some random tables of personality types and traits (such as found in the 1e DMG in the NPC-generation section) should be included for those who can't think of where to start.A non-mechanical fluff-only past professions table can help a lot too in this regard.  If I find I'm playing an ex-farmer, my take on the personality might be quite different than if I'm playing, say, an ex-beggar or ex-jeweller or ex-slave.This one's pretty much up to the DM and player involved; though again some guidelines and starting points in the PHB wouldn't hurt, this stuff is going to end up being different in every campaign no matter what.Where my take is there should be less of a penalty for making a "sub-optimal" decision.  This is where rules-light has an advantage, because it seems the more rules-heavy a system gets, the more finely-balanced it is and that balance is based on the players/characters always making the optimal decision.  One way around this is to have some decisions have no mechanical effect at all, or at best *extremely* limited - e.g. the past professions table I mentioned above.  Another is to simply remove many of the mechanics altogether, and go rules-light.  A third is to remove the mechanics-based decisions - in other words, do like 1e and make each member of each class mechanically the same; thus forcing any difference to come via the role-played personality and-or in-game possessions.Lan-"I had a personality once"-efan</blockquote>

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