Why do so many people play TTRPGs and come up with their own characters with individual backstories and personalities...

Why do so many people play TTRPGs and come up with their own characters with individual backstories and personalities only to not roleplay them? Is it that they're embarrassed to do so, an ignorance as to what roleplay entails or is it just plain apathy?

There a reason "originull character donut steel" is a meme. Alot of the time it's because the characters are such hot garbage that they'd be too bad for even a crap-tier anime, let alone tolerated in a game where anyone gave even the slightest bit of a fuck about quality.

Playing a character is a small part of the game. I confess I tend to forget my character's stated personality quirks when they'd get in the way of defeating whatever obstacle the GM throws in front of us. It's not deliberate, I just get caught up in the game and authentic character acting stops being a priority.

Sometimes the GM is at least partially to blame. They often don't work backstory into the game and just leave it as a thing to be occasionally mentioned by the player it belongs to, with no real grounding in the game itself. That makes it easier to forget you even came up with one, though it doesn't completely absolve you of any blame for forgetting.

The act of prewriting your PC's backstory and characterization is a pregame timefiller and singleton creative exercise. But when it's finally game time, the prewritten stuff is boring and stale so it's more fun to mix things up on the fly.

Good roleplaying requires reciprocation and compromise, but that can't happen when you navel-gaze your own character (or world or adventure, in the case of the GM) so hard that you can't acknowledge the rest of the group.

What do you mean with "roleplaying" exactly. I think many players refrain from acting out voice, facial expression and gestures because most people just aren't very good actors. But if we're talking about content, not expression this seems to be mostly the case when the game is very fighting heavy as most people
roleplay less and play more strategically during fights.

>Alot of the time it's because the characters are such hot garbage that they'd be too bad for even a crap-tier anime
You underestimate anime and manga authors abilities to create true grabage. Watch Mirai Nikki and wou won't say this again.

>What do you mean with "roleplaying" exactly
I mean playing their role. I don't mean putting on voices or even necessarily using facial expressions or gestures what I mean is choosing to make their characters act in a way which correlates with the backstory and personality.

>Sometimes the GM is at least partially to blame. They often don't work backstory into the game and just leave it as a thing to be occasionally mentioned by the player it belongs to, with no real grounding in the game itself.

I'm guilty of this. I think it's because whenever I try, players are disappointed that I interpret elements differently. For example, they'll mention their character grew up in a village and I'll work in a letter from their family. Turns out they meant an isolated ninja village and they have no family.

Because it makes me feel autistic

>Turns out they meant an isolated ninja village and they have no family.
That's their fault for not being specific. When I DM once they hand me their backstory I make it clear that it's fair game for both of us to add our own touches to the character at that point.

Probably because they play games that don't reward that kind of behavior in any significant way.

I've asked them to be specific too, which depending on the player either means actually filling in height and eye color, or sending me pages of backstory.

I don't mind the long backstories, I'm happy to read through them and work through any changes to fit the setting (or change the setting to use some of their ideas). The problem is that these players then get even MORE attached. "No no no, that dwarven city was DESTROYED after my character left. I'll write it up and send it to you after the session."

Ideally I'd like a few vague sentences and the agreement that we can riff off them during prep/play. Sadly that rarely works out for me so I just let players do whatever they're comfortable with, then it's essentially pushed into the background. Just the occasional reference like "you're from a dwarven city, you recognize this stonework", and that seems to keep them happy.

But that behavior shouldn't have to be rewarded since it's quite literally the whole point of playing an rpg. Why play an rpg if you're not actually going to role play?

There are 2 parts to the Role playing games. Role playing and Game.
And there are people who simply more into game part. For whom the characters are their pawns used to tackle the challenges. Sure they can have their pawns covered with a pretty paint job of backstory and personality, but really that just for appearance sake.

And there are games that only reward game part of RPGs.
If game rewards you with loot and experience for passing a challenge at hand. And punishes you with resource expenditure and possible lose of character for failing to do so. Why wouldn't a player chose the most optimal way to resolve a challenge?
Sure i can take suboptimal approach to the problem, that would be much more in character.
But do i get some faith points or whatever? No. Is my character progression depends on making in-character choices? No. Are my fellow players, facing the same dilemma, would appreciate me deviating out party from the path of least resistance for no apparent benefit whatsoever? Probably no. Why do it then? Game clearly doesn't want me to. And I already having fun as is.
From that point of view he is just being reasonable.

What about integrating the two? Think Burning Wheel or Hx in Apocalypse World.

For the Playing Game part, anyway I already picked my role (class).

Because GMs often don't try to take your character's personality quirks into account. Might as well save yourself the disappointment in advance.

Well yeah, BW is great and all, and there are other games that channel gameness into roleplaying well. But most of this list aren't exactly those. So no wonder OP has a point to bitch about.

>there are people who are simply more into game part
These people are sick fucks who don't belong at your table. Throw them out, I know I never run a game where they're tolerated.

Of course the state of the industry and this board coddles that slime, but that wretched cesspool, DnD, will come crashing down soon enough.

woah, hey dude

A lot of players don't roleplay because it takes at least some work to do so. Some players just want to sit back and enjoy the game rather than role playing and potentially enjoying a more engaging and fulfilling game but having to work for it.

Roleplaying is great!
Roleplaying is great!
Death to Pathfinder!
Death to D&D!
Curse on the Wizards of the Coast!
Victory to story games!

Amen brother

>Why do so many people play TTRPGs and come up with their own characters with individual backstories and personalities only to not roleplay them?
Because this happens
>DM: I want all of you to write unique and interesting backstories for your characters
>Everyone makes them
>DM: Okay, now here's the story that has NOTHING to do with any of your plot hooks whatsoever

People tend to forget that D&D is a story game only after the fact. The idea is you make a generic nobody and through the game, you make the story based on your actions and what you do, as opposed to the DM making up a plotline and sending you on it. It's similar to Dragon Quest.

Because they forget the backstory can't be seen, and should not be narrated.
Imagine a guy sitting with you and your new companions and going down a list of important events of his life.
Backstory should be occasionally brought up, and above all acted.

Lazy and passive people forget this because they take for granted that simply writing your character's past as a cool/strong/mysterious/brooding/charismatic guy is enough to make it true.
It's like saying you've helped an olde person cross the road once when you were twelve and then expecting everyone to look at you like you are the paragon of good when you're slacking at home at thirty-six.

Damn you story game heretics!
Damn your materialistic greed for meta-currency!
Damn your lazy weak gauges with just five steps of granularity!
Through simulationism: story!
Verisimilitude!
Verisimilitude!

I'll tell you. Because no-one cares.

Look, you might have a backstory. So does everyone else at the table. But your backstory is probably not relevant until big character moments, if the GM sets it up. Until then, we're all just men with swords killing shit.

That's just how it works. Have you ever run a game before? It's like herding cats. Never mind roleplaying, just getting the players to complete a single dungeon is difficult as hell. Your backstory can come later, the PCs should just focus on the game first.