It's all about character

For me anyway. While we're waiting for me to finish my essay about context, I'm going to delve into characters a bit.

I should preface all of this by saying that I understand some folks don't think that an RPG needs to revolve around characters. All I can say is: sure, but it does for me. Your mileage may vary.

In my mind, the charcter is the input device that players use to play the game. It's the joystick of tabletop RPGs. Games can, of course, give the player resources and techniques for affecting the SIS that are not directly related to the character. But I think it's much better that everything is filtered through the character.

Anyway, I've got some thoughts brewing for a few posts about characters, but please post your thoughts about characters in RPGs as comments on this post. I would like to get a real discussion going.