"What" you are versus "who" you are.

[Dannyalcatraz]

No room for disagreements on the paladin's code or what constitutes good and evil based on the PH definitions of the paladin and alignments. No two ways to interpret any of it differently. It is clear whether a paladin who kills evil is doing evil, whether mercy is required, how they deal with surrendered evil foes, whether they can kill something simply because it detects as evil, do they need legal authorization, can they lie, ambush, etc.

{Casting Detect Sarcasm}

pingpingpingpingpingping!

 

[Thurbane]

I firmyl believe that RP heavy gaming and combat heavy gaming need not be mutually exclusive. Itry to include a good mix of both when I DM, and enjoys a good mix of both when I play...

I also believe you really don't need an in-game mechanic to detail your character's persona (other than perhaps D&D's alignment systrem, which IMHO, falls far short of tracking something as complex as a "real" persona).

 

[Aus_Snow]

Well, starting at 1st level, they can't have done anything that would be significant enough to gain experience points, at least. 1st level characters really do need to be "fresh from the farm," so to speak. Their adventures haven't started yet, or else they wouldn't be 1st level.

So. . . childhood (and likely a good deal more than that) is just a void that you um, avoid? Nothing happens in those formative years that could possibly help to shape who (*and* what) a character is? No adventures, discoveries, stories to tell?

Let's just say, I strongly disagree. But I do of course recognise that there are many different styles of chargen and play out there. It's all good, so long as everyone's on the same page, basically.

 

[Thurbane]

So. . . childhood (and likely a good deal more than that) is just a void that you um, avoid? Nothing happens in those formative years that could possibly help to shape who (*and* what) a character is? No adventures, discoveries, stories to tell?

Let's just say, I strongly disagree. But I do of course recognise that there are many different styles of chargen and play out there. It's all good, so long as everyone's on the same page, basically.

I agree totally with you Aus.

Not to mention that early experiences do not need to be strictly "off the farm": - an apprenticeship under a Wizard, drills with the local militia, running errands for the local Thieves Guild or service as an altar boy spring readily to mind...

Imagine the character had seen his master miscast and summoning and have to battle a powerful fiend, seen his favorite mentor felled in battle with marauders, been caught and "disciplined" by the town watch or been in attendance the day the Holy Reliquary of St. Hubert was finally returned to the temple...

 

[LostSoul]

Background, personality, goals. Things that rolling dice or using table to deal with I find don't work that well with.

Um... I had a point here, I swear I did.

Can you imagine times when these things - background, personality, and goals - would come into question? When a player (including the DM) might say something about his character that could be challenged by someone else?

If so, you might want to have mechanics that can determine who can say what. Just like in combat.