D&D General Wildly Diverse "Circus Troupe" Adventuring Parties

[Hussar]

People with decent family lives generally aren't taking up the adventure of risking life and limb to delve into dungeons and ancient ruins to grab treasure. They're living with the decent family and loving home.

Adventuring, by its nature, draws a very specific crowd, and a lot of the question of why someone is adventuring is just that: what set them on that road to adventure?

But, in the real world, that's not even remotely true.

It's not like Captain Cook was an orphan. Magellan was a noble. To be fair, his parents did die. But, again, there are a horde of historical figures that aren't from tortured pasts who have become explorers and adventurers.

 

[Belen]

Only problem with that is, again, players make their characters in a vacuum and it really doesn't matter how cool you think your options are, the players just don't care. As I said earlier, I've largely given up on trying. The players are going to bring whatever to the table, so, at this point, I'm just too tired of trying to buck the trend.

Why would players make their characters in a vacuum?

This has never happened in one of my games in the last 30 years. I provide the character generation document. I am usually pretty generous and give extra options.

Do I restrict some species options? Yes. I do not allow Warforged, for example.

I have a session zero although never called it that. The players have a discussion with me and the other players about what to play and what may fit with the rest of the group. It is always a discussion.

I have even built options for players who want something different.

If people are showing up with some random character and not discussing and interacting with the group, then something has gone wrong.