Player Character
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Basic Information

A player character (PC) is a fictional persona within a roleplaying game which is controlled by one of the players (as opposed to a non-player character controlled by the GM).

Opinions vary as to how much actual characterisation should be applied - for the more gamist player, especially in cRPGs, actual character is unnecessary and any personality merely a cypher besides the combat role being played. At the opposite end of the spectrum is the highly narrativist character who has a fully developed backstory deeply rooted in the campaign world and their own carefully worked out likes and dislikes. The third extreme is where the player creates a character who is a more or less thinly disguised self-insertion into the game world … these are probably the most troublesome of all for a wide variety of reasons.

In any setting, the PC will be shaped by a character creation system - typically one of a class and level system, a point buy system or a lifepath system, although other systems exist and some combination is possible (often point buy will be used to customise the output of a lifepath or class and level model). This will define the character's capabilities at the start of the game - and depending on the game being played and the power curve inherent to it, these may range from heroic to barely functional. In most cases, the character will then develop along the power curve during play - see Self Improvement the RPG way for a study of how this can happen.

Sources

Bibliography
1. full source reference

Game and Story Use

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