Do your characters care about the storyline?

Depends on the character. Most do, to some extent. VEATs ignore their craptastic "special" storyline though.

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I play this game for the visuals and the story and the interactivity with both.

My character identities _must_ interweave with the existing story or the game might as well be any of the bland generic FPS's where the plot may well have come from a Christmas cracker.

I have no desire to build a world myself, I can (and do) do that but I come to this game to relax. I want to be told a story and have enough latitude to weave in and out of it as I wish. I want to be part of a story and a setting bigger than me and my imagination... mostly so I can give it a well earned rest.

I don't think my heroes could call themselves heroes if they ignored the things going on in the world around them. However, at the same time, my characters realize there are thousands of other heroes in the city who can see to certain threats. I generally asign my characters to certain areas. For example, one is assisting with the Praetorian War, one with the Rikti situation, and another tends to take on street level crime while most of the cities heores are tied up in interdimensional war.

I, as the player, will sometimes ignore things that happen in game. Rikti invasions are a good example of this. If I am on my way to a mission and a Rikti invasion starts, everyone of my characters would stop to help fend of the invaders. What hero wouldn't? But if I am deeply involved in a story arc, I will pretend the Rikti invasion simply is not happening at that moment.

Another example: When I am doing my marketing in Steel Canyon, I am moving from WWs to the University, to AE to get salvage. Along the way I see hundreds of crimes. Since I consider marketing an OOC activity, I do not stop to assist the citizens in distress because as I see it, I am not really playing my character at that moment. On the other hand, if I see a purse snatching on my way to a mission or to my SG base, I will stop, even on my level 50 hero, and stop the crime.

So to answer your question, yes my characters care about the storyline and the things happening in the game world, but sometimes I do not.

It all depends on the character.

Some are intimately tied to the story, while others couldn't care less.

For example, I have five characters who are "loyal" Praetorians (one, Over Seer, is actually very deep cover for the Resistance). They deeply care about the Praetorian storyline, but now that they are on Primal Earth, I am needing to do some mental gymnastics to explain what they are doing in Paragon City until Cole's invasion when they rejoin his forces and betray Paragon City.

I have other characters whose concepts required them to be heroes with villain archetypes, so they sped through Praetoria so they could be part of the story of Paragon City like they were supposed to be (I may reroll Lady Warhawk with I21, as I haven't had the chance to get her out of Praetoria yet and Street Justice may be the set she is looking for).

With all of my characters, it is really their personal stories I am concerned about, and I tend to pick the missions and content that would appeal to them. I have the hardest time of this with Villains, because most of the contacts treat you like a lackey, and most of my villains wouldn't stand for that. Many of the new villain contacts, who either treat you as an equal or grovel at your feet, are a step in the right direction (there are other problems, though, like many of my characters have no desire to see themselves cloned once, much less create a clone army of themselves).

Sam, it saddens me to hear you don't try to play in the game world. That is to say, it's not bad or wrong that you just play *with* the game world rather than *in* but it's just depressing. Like how AE is majorly used to farm (heck even i occasionally farm in the 30s for cash for basic IOs).

For me, I can't say all my characters 'care' about the overarching story but the general feel, yes. When I make a character whose nemesis is the Council or Carnival, I aim their wrath that way. Some of my characters are affiliated with in-game groups or are conceptual figure heads for specific origin/power types so they'll literally have their hands in anything involving tech or thr Tsoo.

Since all of my characters are linked somehow, then theres some links to the game if not directly, then indirectly.

BUT...even though i do this, i keep the background loose enough (or have back up to the background) so in any instant i want to write a book or create something using these characters, i can erase any traces of CoX to avoid legal issues.

I write a brief background for all my heroes. A number came from the ruins of Baumtown, and their stories were set in motion by the initial Rikti invasion. Others are aliens responding to the crisis on Earth, but for them, the crisis is the ascendency of what we know as the Circle of Thorns, since they have battled the equivalent organizations and their Satanic allies on their own worlds.

And so on. To that extent, my heroes are involved in the story.

The story and I have parted company where things got goofy and weirded out. When I am gravely told about various things that are goofy, I just cover my ears and hum. Never happened. If signing on to such goofy lore is a prerequisite to content, I do not proceed with the content.

Mine don't all care about the over-all City plot, but given that I do see them as existing in the same basic setting as that story and its characters, I often use City NPCs and lore as a part of their backgrounds or basic concepts... I wouldn't presume to make someone of mine Statesman's long-lost sister or anything like that, but I don't see anything wrong with working bits and pieces of the world into my crew. It gives them more context, I think, and a more solid foundation *as* CoX protagonists.

I do things like making Mei a Nemesis operative, for instance... Palrah works for Vanguard. Shade was a Praetorian PD officer before she was drafted into the Powers Division. Mister Bibbles is the feline familiar of a Cabal witch. Mister Mistoffolees served a similar role for a Legacy Chain sorcerer. Kestrel still works for Scirocco. That sort of thing.... I don't let City's story limit what I do, particularly, and I'm perfectly willing to play a little fast and loose with established canon to make something work (For example, creating an entire species of Shard-native Rularuu bird-things-), but I like having connections between my characters and the established world.

As for City missions that go "against character"... There have definitely been a few of those. (See my post in the "emotional impact" thread re: Kes and Scir's patron arc for just one example-) I usually still run them with the characters. Sometimes I consider them IC and just deal with the railroading as "unavoidable circumstances"... Other times I just write it off as OOC and don't worry about it. As much as I like my characters as characters, I also like playing the game as a game.

That said... I have avoided contacts (Phipps you jerk, I'm looking at you. >_>) and auto-completed missions a few times when they seemed particularly "off" for someone. It's just not my typical response.

My characters fall into two categories; those I created before ever playing CoH, and those I created FOR CoH.

Ironically, the bulk of my characters created prior to ever seeing this game have been adapted in a way that makes the game setting, and in some cases, specific storylines, intergral to their existence.

My main toon, Kavik the Wolf Boy, was an agent of a secret branch of the U.S. military in his original continuity. On Primal Earth, he's part of the Vanguard, and worked closely with Dark Watcher once his 'security clearence level' was high enough. The original version is a werewolf seeking the origins of lycanthropy, but he doesn't believe in magic and tries to disprove or rationalize all known instances of magic. This translated in CoH into his desire to shut down the Tsoo, CoT, and BP, as they are dangerously depleting the natural energies of the Earth / Universe, by his understanding of how magic works. As a werewolf he took special interest in the Council to the abominations they often created in the name of science, an element of the character unique to this setting.

Kavik eventually traveled to the Shadow Shard with Dark Watcher on one of the many frontline initiatives during the Coming Storm, but was lost in that realm for several years. While there the energies of that reality changed him, and when one of Rularuu's aspects was killed in battle with Earth's heroes, Rularuu tried to transform Kavik's new body into a suitable host for a replacement aspect. To avoid this Kavik went back in time to before the Coming Storm and merged with his former self, but this just gave the present-day Rularuu a foothold on Earth, so every time Kavik uses his new cosmic (Incarnate) powers, he loses more of his humanity. This all came from a need to justify a werewolf that could go toe-to-toe with god-level foes, but was also vaguely inspired by a Lovecraftian plot I'd subjected the original character to, years ago.

On the other hand, his Praetorian Earth counterpart wound up living in the Tunnels, and was eventually rounded up for experimentation by Neuron, becoming Kavik the Ghoul Boy. When the Resistance freed him he joined their cause, and adopted a very black and white view of morality. Now that he lives on Primal Earth, he even feels that Kavik the Wolf Boy is little better than the scum he fights, due to the primal toon being a vigilante willing to work with villains on Vanguard assignments.

Other characters, like Kid Kilovolt, are simply superheroes with back-stories completely unrelated to anything going on in paragon City, the Rogue Isles, or Praetoria. KK operates in Paragon City because that happens to be where the action is. His Praetorian counterpart the Kilovolt Kid is a willing member of Powers Division, but really he isn't so much loyal to a cause as he is working with whatever 'system' is in place to uphold laws and catch criminals. Neither version of KK relies on CoH lore for their origins or motivations.

Most of my characters, especially the first few to run through a certain set of content (CoH, CoV, Praetoria), are pretty integrated into the setting. They did those things that the missions say, if perhaps not quite how the mission text has them react; those events and experiences are blocks of foundation around which I weave their personal stories, through their reactions. If there are things that character would not do or contacts they would not work with, I don't.

Later characters tend to eschew running official content (yet again) in favor of more generic and/or player-created content - other people's missions (that I can include or ignore in "my story" as I wish), radio and tip missions (ditto; plus, as they're more generic, I can weave my own narrative around them), and the occasional AE arc when someone in my circle is motivated to write one. Official arcs that are fun and/or fundamental enough to that character may get played. And of course, there's no-combat sitting-around-the-base RP to fill in the gaps.

I believe I play this way, in these two different styles, to minimize not only boredom with running the same arc(s) on yet another alt, but also implausibility. Many arcs are fixed in or assume a certain frame of time - quite a lot of them, in fact, only make sense if this was still '04 or '05, shortly after the game's launch, when things like the true nature of the Rikti, or Crey, or Nemesis, or the Malta Group, or Oroborous were not open secrets to most of the super-powered population. It's a bit silly to have Agent McQueen congratulate you on preventing a second Rikti invasion while dropships cruise through the skies of Founders Falls. A character I create today is not going to be the one to reveal the Clockwork aren't really robots, or uncover the connection between the Sky Raiders and Nemesis, or deliver the cannisters that start the Outbreak. Someone else did those things, years ago.

Then there's the stuff I ignore outright, like the official background of AE (you expect me to stick my head in this thing? how stupid do you think I am? no, really) or the Origin of Power arc (just bad writing) or the VEAT arc (ditto). And while some of my Incarnates are following the canon path, others are coming into the power or potential they've always had through other means and/or as it becomes possible to represent that in-game.

Depends.

Fortunate Daughter, my fortunata (heh) is an Arachnos lackey and likes it that way. (she's possibly not too terribly bright) she'll gladly fight whoever Lord Recluse tells her too, while simultaneously not feeling any animosity: It's a job, and she'll gladly hang out with the people she just tried to murder while on duty. To her the Praetorians are just another "beat up" people. Although she did spend a couple of missions in Praetoria.

Most of my heroes aren't directly involved with the story, but it does affect them: They want to defend their world against whatever threatens them. The coming Storm, Praetoria... It's not personal, but they are threats to be fought, for the safety of Primal Earth.

My Praetorians tends to be the ones most intertwined with the story, obviously.

I spend too much time thinking and writing down my characters' concepts, back stories, etc. that I cannot even begin to imagine 'locking' myself into the CoX world; there's just not enough in it for me.

Mind you, this is a personal state of mind/opinion. I'm a fantasy/magic heavy guy and while I do enjoy some science and technology based stories/worlds, I have a tendency to lock myself on the magic/fantasy side.

Basically, what I'm trying to put here is that the CoX world has too much science for most of my concepts, while, at the same time, not having enough magic for them.

So, while I, as a player, do enjoy the story and the world put into being by the developers, my characters, on the other hand, have very minor interactions (if any), in terms of back stories and whatnot, with the plot of the game, or whatever mission I'm running.

I mostly try to find a way/reason for my characters to 'end up' in Paragon City/the Rogue Isles and that's pretty much it in terms of 'playing the CoX story as the character'.