this post was submitted on 05 Jan 2024
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This is a pretty common trope and very common reasoning, but honestly: it kind of sucks and is played out.
I understand the reasoning. I really do. "I as a player don't really understand the relationship between the Invictus and the Lancea Sanctum, so I'll make a character who doesn't either! Easy to roleplay!" Fine, but now the group has to account for that character. If your group wanted to play competent characters who navigate the political landscape, they have this dead weight to drag along.
It forces the game's shape harder than other options. Every character adds some shape and flavor to the game, but "stark newbie" does so a lot. If someone made a character that's like, a mekhet obsessed with pedestrian safety, that adds flavor but doesn't force the game to go in particular ways in most contexts.
It's also kind of played out. Everyone who's played RPGs for a reasonable length of time has probably encountered the trope. I think everyone has encountered the "let's play ourselves in this setting!" idea, too. For the person playing "the utter newbie" it might be an exciting fresh take. For everyone else it could be the 7th time they've seen this.
None of this is to say that you shouldn't even invoke these tropes. But per the thread topic, I'd argue they are far less cool than they initially appear to some people.