While I've been quietly lurking on forums, and working on my own game system again (about the 1000th unpublishable collection of such efforts I've assembled since first playing Dragon Warriors over 30 years ago), I've stumbled into somewhat of an interesting dilemma. Which has prompted me to finally join a forum to discuss.
I could be wrong about this, but watching games change over the years, it seems to me that character personality has become increasingly codified, and built into game mechanics. It was kind of interesting way back when White Wolf did it with Vampire, and now it seems to have become the driving force behind many games.
I'd describe the change as a shift in focus, toward predetermined character behaviour, rather than emergent character behaviour. Recently it seems that if a game doesn't have it some kind of behavioural reinforcement mechanic, people look for ways to force it onto the system.
My question is, How people feel about whether this actually improves roleplaying and characterisation, or is just an interesting mechanic?
Is characterisation really improved by 50 pages of backstory? Does rewarding or punishing a character for deviating from their psychological template lead to more interesting and complex characters, or even a more fun experience?
For my part, if you give me a decent gear list, I'll give you a character. Sure, not much of a character at first, but once play begins, that character will flesh out with their own personality and quirks. I'd rather not know beforehand how that character will react to things. Half the fun is getting into a situation, rolling something outlandish, and finding out who your character is.
In the middle ground, building a character in Traveller is a game in itself, with what may seem like terrible rolls building into a fun quirky history, from which a character emerges. That is, a complex character *emerges* from that background, rather than being determined by a few simple traits. Even here though, I personally feel more like I'm performing the already formed character, whereas "back in the day" it felt like I was discovering the character.
I can definitely see the value in games like FATE, and I can appreciate systems that use personality aspects as their core mechanic, but I'm not sure it *necessarily* leads to more interesting characters, or more a more fun game. At least not to the extent that a similar system needs to be jury rigged into every other game.
So there's the debate, Emergent character behaviour vs pre-determined or codified character behaviour.
Obviously they're not wholly mutually exclusive, but to what extent could the trend toward codified behaviour mechanics actually reduce character complexity or even player enjoyment? Why do modern game designers seem to feel that it's *necessary*.
Cheers, I'd love to hear people's opinions.