The RPG Room: Orphan Characters

RPGs are home to too many orphan characters. Characters with no past, no grounding or no substance. Often we see people who create characters and have no background whatsoever, or want to have the “mysterious” character with no past. A character that will take as close to zero as possible effort to play because they don’t have to justify their actions or add some sort of congruence to their personality. Even if there is nothing wrong with playing a character like that, the chances are that the player is missing out on some intense gaming experience. What can be done and why is not a good idea to play an orphan character? Jim and I talk about it for a bit.