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Message: <blockquote data-quote="hawkeyefan" data-source="post: 8670785" data-attributes="member: 6785785">I think it depends on what you want out of play. Or what a game is about. Or some combo of those things. I typically find with my 5E D&D characters (I’ve made two PCs in the last year or so after previously being the forever GM of my group) that I have a very strong sense of the character before we even really begin play. Not entirely crystal clear…there’s some areas of uncertainty or blank spots to fill in. But between class, background, alignment, and BIFTs, I have a good sense of the person. During play, I’m portraying the character with this picture of them in mind. With other games, that’s not quite the case. My Stonetop character for example, I had just as many details going in… a class of sorts (the Judge, arbiter and chronicler of the town), a background of sorts (Prophet, his god speaks to him), an alignment of sorts (the Instinct of Harmony), and some connections with other PCs and NPCs (good friends with one of the other PCs, was an orphan raised by his uncle, looked up to a blind town elder, followed around by a young girl who idolizes him). That’s a pretty clear picture. But my concept of him is much less certain than with my D&D characters. I’m not quite certain exactly why. I think it’s just the way some of these elements are designed. How they’re worded. Like Alignment compared to Instinct. Alignment is more about behavior. A person is good or evil, they observe laws or they don’t, and so on. Instinct is more a goal. Or a means to a goal, perhaps. Instinct is much less about telling you how a character will behave. Because of that, it invites a certain amount of exploration of the character. How important is the Instinct? What will they do to achieve it? How far will they go? Such questions aren’t as relevant when we’ve already classified a character as good or evil. That seems to be a part of it. I expect there’s more to it, though. But ultimately, in one game I’m more depicting my character, and in another I’m more exploring my character. The idea of depiction is somewhat at odds with learning about the character from without.</blockquote>

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