Editing Adventurer (section)

===But... why?===
So, you might be wondering what the appeal of playing a one-dimensional Saturday Cartoon Villain in world of one-dimensional Saturday Cartoon Villains is. Fair question. Thing is, one aspect of murderhobos that [[neckbeard]]s don't like to talk about much is that they were, and indeed still remain, largely a response to [[Old School Roleplaying]].

See, in the dim and dismal early days of RPGs, especially [[Dungeons & Dragons]], Roleplaying Games did not put much stock into, well, roleplaying. Gameplay was seen less as a form of collaborative story telling and more as a conflict between the DM and the players (and/or conflict/competition between players, "who kills more monsters/loots more treasures/etc"), something to be won. Remember, old school D&D and its even older predecessor Chainmail spun out of table top wargames where there was a definitive loser and winner. Nevermind that such a conflict is inherently tilted in the DM's favor, since he can always [[Rocks fall, everyone dies|just drop rocks on all the players at any time he feels like]], making a "victory" by the DM not actually any accomplishment. This mindset was encouraged with competitive tournaments held at conventions to see who could complete a module in the shortest time and with the most gold and Experience Points. Most campaigns were just a series of dungeons crawls leading up to the final battle with the dragon on the twentieth floor, where the only NPCs were the enemies meant to be killed. Even when the games moved out of the dungeons and into the wider world, DMs kept this overly competitive mindset alive for a long while. The only difference between outside and inside was the size — everything and everyone was still part of Team "Destroy the PCs" and out for blood. That captured princess you just rescued? She's actually a [[Mimic|shapeshifting monster]] and eats you while your guard is down. Those merchants you brought gear and food from? Swindlers whose stock is non-functional at best, and at worst sabotaged so it'll break at the worst possible time. That otherwise apathetic level 1 Commoner you just passed by the street? They'll happily rat you out to the BBEG's minions for a couple copper coins because you dared breathe in their presence.

Having an actual backstory made this even worse, as it amounted to generously providing the DM a list of people who would instantly recognize you, know all your weaknesses, and abuse both without hesitation. The rare few friendly NPCs who weren't faking it were just ways to attack the PCs indirectly: Got a little sibling who idolizes you? Boom — they've been kidnapped by [[Ogre|Ogre]] [[Bandit|bandits]]; better save them before they get raped! Got a family or a sweetheart back home that you're adventuring to raise money for? Boom — they just got unceremoniously murdered off-screen by the [[BBEG]]'s [[Assassin|assassins]] to provide a cheap plot hook for an angsty revenge story! That [[Lamia child|Lamia child you rescued from an untenable situation to raise as your own?]] Boom — she's always been planning to slit your throat in your sleep, and now you have to kill your adopted daughter! The only NPCs you could rely on with '''''any''''' degree of reliability were subordinates (e.g. Followers, [[Retainer]]s), summoned creatures (e.g. via Gate), mind-controlled creatures (e.g. anything overridden with mindrape spells. "Evil"? [[Rules Lawyer|Fuck that noise, Neutral characters can cast such things and not become Evil]]), and NPC's which absolutely can't be evil while not bluntly acting OOC and not being impostors (e.g. "Always Good" NPC's like Angels, Good Deities/Gods, God which PC worships, etc; unless GM really wiggles around - e.g. "PC Murderhobo ''is'' worse evil than monsters!"). '''''Literally everyone else''''' was out for the PCs' blood. Weak friendly NPCs are just a liability; strong "friendly" NPCs end up as traitors. Writing backstory featuring good strong NPCs the GM couldn't warp on its head was '''impossible'''. It boiled down to either writing backstory in a way that didn't feature any NPCs, or not writing any backstory at all - or at the very least, [[Munchkin|writing backstory which doesn't feature any NPC's and other detrimental parts while giving as much bonuses as possible (e.g. skills, feats, things PC has at home or in hidden stash, etc)]]. 

Hence, the resulting murderhobo: [[Munchkin|a character functionally hatched from an adventurer egg who shoots first, asks questions never, and doesn't give a damn about anything that doesn't fuel their progression of loot and EXP.]]