Character driven play

Players have an obligation to push toward their beliefs. Definitely should have put your foot down.

That is what my earlier posts were about, the expectation of players to push those character BITs.

If I the GM just pick up the slack to do it all myself the new players are far less likely to grok and take up their responsibility. Then the game devolves into me chasing them around trying to pin them into a conflict. :frowning:

So instead I lean a little the other way to get them into the grove, and to remind myself of their responsibility (and opportunities).

I’ve had some bizarre situations with playing straight door-kickin’, monster-slayin’, loot-gatherin’ D&D. At the beginning that’s all there is, but I’m playing in a game full of roleplayers who like to play roles. A half dozen sessions in and the dungeon crawls get derailed by courting the local belle, politicking with the mayor, working out the political implications of wandering monsters, trying to arm and train a militia against bandits. And I want to switch systems to BW. Burning THAC0, maybe, but once you start caring about a character you end up with beliefs in any system. BW just formalizes and rewards the process.

The tricky bit is getting the BITs right before the player has really embraced and understood the character.