CatharzGodfoot wrote:Your character's experiences are what make him interesting, and having things like that be important in later adventures is really gratifying.
If this is specifically on the matter of language, I maintain that language as a barrier can be relegated to flavor text with no loss to anyone. If it turns out it was your character's turn to look cool when you needed someone to speak Manigator back in session 2, and the DM needs a reason why nobody's solved a certain puzzle before the PCs turned up in session 8, it can be because part of the puzzle is written in Manigator and you can look cool all over again.
If it's about being shaped by your adventures, I think I spoke in favor of that already, but I'll clarify: it's about choice. Maybe I don't want to wear a lionskin. Maybe I don't want poisoned arrows. Maybe I don't want ranks in Craft: Riverbed. Maybe I want to embed the Lion's claws and teeth into my club so it's deadlier, eat the Hydra's flesh until I can regenerate, and get skill ranks in Bargain based on negotiating being paid for cleaning those stables. Maybe I want to eat the lion's heart and become immune to fear, keep the Hydra's one immortal head in my belt pouch as an oracle, and get skill ranks in whatever you use to withstand the stench of the stables.
Sometimes in a story, before you can defeat the boss you have to learn the Seven Secret Kicks. In a role-playing game, you may still have to learn
something before you can beat the boss or whatever, but if your character uses a sword (or
is a naga) and you want it to be the Seven Secret Cuts instead, that should be fine. If your character is an ice mage and you want it to be the Seven Secret Snowflakes, that should be okay too.
It is just barely okay to be forced to have your character learn how to pickpocket to get past a plot point. It would be better if there were a variety of possible solutions to that problem. It is completely not okay to be forced to have 'pickpocket' on your character's sheet, for the rest of his career, in the place of a skill that better fit your concept for that character.