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<blockquote data-quote="FrogReaver" data-source="post: 7458807" data-attributes="member: 6795602">1) The fact that they give it a quick glance is evidence they are exterting control over backgrounds2)&nbsp; There's a bunch of separate but semi-related points here.&nbsp; I'm going to try address the most important one.&nbsp; Can one roleplay a character that's simply a race and a class with no other information.&nbsp; Let's try this with an example:&nbsp; Let's take Gnarl the Human Fighter.&nbsp; Gnarl is asked to dance by a human woman.&nbsp; With no other details other than you being a human Fighter you are left more or less randomly picking an answer.&nbsp; A more expansive background and personality opens up the possibility that you can actually pick the course of action that makes the most sense for the character instead of just picking a random course of action.&nbsp; I suppose both can be defined as roleplaying in the sense that you have a character and are having him do things and react to situations.&nbsp; I also suppose it's impossible to entirely get away from reacting to situations that your character could literally act either 50/50 way on.&nbsp; But while such situations are impossible to avoid, it's not those situations that really highlight what roleplaying is.&nbsp; Roleplaying is best highlighted by a &quot;fleshed out character&quot; where a player can leverage certain background truths and personality traits and determine a course of action for said character.&nbsp; So I guess the best way to say it is that there is a gap between what actually can be fit into the definition of roleplaying (such as having a character make choices) and what we are actually striving for with roleplaying (having a character make choices by leveraging their background and personality).</blockquote>

[QUOTE="FrogReaver, post: 7458807, member: 6795602"] 1) The fact that they give it a quick glance is evidence they are exterting control over backgrounds 2) There's a bunch of separate but semi-related points here. I'm going to try address the most important one. Can one roleplay a character that's simply a race and a class with no other information. Let's try this with an example: Let's take Gnarl the Human Fighter. Gnarl is asked to dance by a human woman. With no other details other than you being a human Fighter you are left more or less randomly picking an answer. A more expansive background and personality opens up the possibility that you can actually pick the course of action that makes the most sense for the character instead of just picking a random course of action. I suppose both can be defined as roleplaying in the sense that you have a character and are having him do things and react to situations. I also suppose it's impossible to entirely get away from reacting to situations that your character could literally act either 50/50 way on. But while such situations are impossible to avoid, it's not those situations that really highlight what roleplaying is. Roleplaying is best highlighted by a "fleshed out character" where a player can leverage certain background truths and personality traits and determine a course of action for said character. So I guess the best way to say it is that there is a gap between what actually can be fit into the definition of roleplaying (such as having a character make choices) and what we are actually striving for with roleplaying (having a character make choices by leveraging their background and personality). [/QUOTE]

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