rifqi

I'm afraid I can't follow. How does it go against roleplaying if you know and have decided on your character's background? So basically you want to make up your own background, and not be limited by the choices given by the developers? Ok, I can see some merit in that. But I have to say, I don't think broad backgrounds limit your chance to make up most of the background of your character. Examples of what backgrounds I would like to see: "Raised by a soldier": +1 STR, bonus to swords, polearms and thrown weapons "Alchemist's apprentice": +1 INT, bonus to alchemy I think these do not limit your roleplaying in any way, but contribute to it. You may still be an intellectual, or a lithe person, who was raised by a soldier. You may have worked as a lumberjack, a goldsmith or a carpenter. You may have been an alchemist's apprentice, but you're still a lump of a man and he simply couldn't find anyone else. I agree that those kind of backgrounds wouldn't limit you very much, sometimes limitations can even make you more creative. Still, given the choice, I would prefer total control of my character's background and personality instead of almost complete control. As far as I'm concerned my character's background need only exist in my imagination and will manifest itself in the game by the moral choices it leads him/her to make. Both ways has their merits, it's just a matter of personal taste.

I have to say I'm against this idea. From what I've seen so far it seems like they want you to be able to really role play your character and a set background story would limit your possibilities to do so. I want to create my own character with his/her own background. A character's background is, in large part, what motivates the character and I don't want motivations forced on me. I don't see a need for your character's past to be represented in the game in any other way than the choices it leads him/her to make.

They don't do it out of joy. It's precisely because so much emphasis is placed on money that people are selling everything with a vendor value. It's when you see something nice for sale for 10000 gp and you only have around 200 gp that triggers people's inner pillager, willing to sell anything that's lootable to get to that goal, just to get there slightly faster. Then I don't think we've been playing the same games I don't remember ever spending a large amount of money in, for example, BG and BG2. It just kept piling up and ended up being useless. If it is as you say, people looting everything because they need more money, then the whole system is inherently flawed. The main source of income should be actual money, gold and treasure, not daggers and shields. For me this is a question of immersion and being able to role play. Sure, if I know some rich dude has a sword covered with jewels, I'll try to steal it (provided it's in character, of course ), but I won't be picking up every dagger a bunch of goblins drop. It would probably take more time and effort than it would be worth anyway.

It's already been mentioned but I thought I should add my voice as well. I've never really understood the joy of looting every little knick-knack you run across. If I was out adventuring I wouldn't bother picking up a sword unless it was exceptional in some way or an improvement on what I was using at the time. It just doesn't make any sense from a role playing perspective. Instead, what I would love to see, would be for money to actually have value to the player. So, after clearing a dungeon, why not let the reward be a chest of gold? It makes sense. Then make it possible to use that gold to buy actually useful stuff from merchants. Have them sell weapons and armor that are as good or better than what you find on your average adventure. Make it exciting to find gold, instead of having it be a useless resource that you just keep gathering, never to use. Maybe that reward from the next quest will be enough to buy that sword you've been saving up for, how's that for incentive? It would also make it easier to role play more pragmatic characters who aren't interested in doing good just because it's good. Giving gold actual value would give those characters a reason to take on a certain quest. I really don't think your main income should be from selling loot, except for the occasional, rare, epic sword of badassary or things like gems. In short: wether merchants have unlimited gold or not shouldn't matter, as long as the whole economics system is implemented in a smart way.