Forums » RP Discussion » Which Comes First: Character or Setting?

First off; this is more a meta-discussion about RP preferences here than it is about the specifics of a particular RP.

I've been kicking around the idea of running a Pathfinder game here; this forum is pretty well suited for it, I feel, because you've got the ability to roll dice as part of the post, and you can easily post a character sheet for each character. And honestly, when it comes to tabletop RPGs, that's really all you need to facilitate it.

The difference, I find, between a lot of the RP requests within the forum are more character oriented; "I have this character X, I'm looking for this kind of theme/scene/plot, tell me which character Y you think would mesh well with them and we'll build the world around them". Whereas with a lot of tabletop style adventures (especially when it comes to Pathfinder's excellent adventure paths), the order seems more to go, "Here's this detailed world and a specific plot hook, make a character that works within these guidelines".

With that in mind, when one puts up a post in the 'Looking for RP' forum to request players for such a game, which would be more likely to produce results, so to speak? I've certainly no problem with someone tweaking an existing character idea to fit a specific setting - I had better not, considering how often I do it myself - but is the community around here (on average) going to balk at a request that includes "here are some restrictions on what I'm looking for", and decide it's too much trouble to be worth not having any input in the setting details?

Take this all with a grain of salt because I've never played a tabletop game and I barely know what Pathfinder is.

It's probably because of these guidelines, or rather a lack thereof, that here on RPR roleplays are usually based on characters. Without universally defined mechanics or character sheets, you don't limit yourself as much in that you can jump into many types of roleplay with only slight alterations.

It could also be because an RP is more likely to end or die out before a character is retired. If I make a character for a specific roleplay, and it doesn't work out for whatever reason, then I could end up with a character that I put a lot of time and effort into but didn't use as much as I would have liked. A premade character can be adapted slightly for different plots and therefore reused; the ten-character slot limit on RPR makes it more intuitive to do so.
Example: I saw a Looking for RP thread relating to the Dragon Age universe. If you create a Grey Warden character, then after the roleplay is over, it may not be easy to repurpose and reuse a character made specifically for a fandom. And personally I find it hard to delete a character (luckily I have 2 slots left!).

But mostly, I think the majority of us here have never played a tabletop-style RPG and are limited to what we do have exposure to, which consists of choosing from a collection of characters.

That all seems pretty reasonable. Goodness knows I tend to hate it when PbP games die out before I've really begun to dig into a character's development, which is probably why I reuse so many of my own concepts.

Personally, it's the characters that matter more to me. Anyone who's RPed with me knows that I tend to evolve the story based around the characters and their relationships, actions, personalities, backgrounds, and various little details like that. The setting evolves itself around them in a sense. If the characters look good, then I'll work on making the settings.

That seems like a good way to do it. Especially when it comes to smaller, one-on-one style RP, everybody knows that it's the smooching character development that's the whole point.

Also, note to self; remember to turn email notifications on when posting in the future.