I like it when player characters are people of their world, and not just generic fantasy characters. Unfortunately I see a lot of that in Dungeons & Dragons games―characters who could be from anywhere, because they have nothing tying them to the setting they supposedly live in. It's not even that they don't have any background or personality. They frequently have a quite detailed background or personality, it's just one that draws from standard fantasy tropes and never mentions anything specific to their world.
I'd going to be running a game set in Greyhawk soon, and I'd like to encourage my players to make their characters people of that world. Greyhawk has a pretty rich and varied lore, much of which is
readily available online. I've
also posted
some setting
material in the
past. Inspired by
this old post, I thought I would take a carrot rather than stick approach. Instead of requiring anything, I'll just give XP bonues to players who go to the trouble. For instance:
- Established kingdom/city-state/polity of origin: +100xp
- --said origin is appropriate to the campaign: +100xp
- Established ethnic makeup that fits with polity of origin: +100xp
- Has a name appropriate to their culture: +100xp
- Speaks a native tongue as well as Common: +100xp
- Wears clothing appropriate to their culture: +100xp
And so on. This is just a rough idea.