Quote Originally Posted by Tanarii View Post
No, player -character separation is a myth, an attempting to force it is actively metagaming. Making decisions for the character in the fantasy environment is roleplaying, but it can't be done by ignoring player motivations unless you intentionally try to metagame to do it.

Certainly in-character motivations can be considered by a player against any other knowledge and given precedence if it conflicts, or find a compromise. For example, if your character is a mercenary who wants hard cash up front, you're likely to look for ways to get XP that also get hard cash up front first. But in the absence of that, or even when it's not a total conflict, player motivations will influence decision making for the character.

It probably doesn't.
I mean, after a quick google search I got
role-playing: [noun] an activity in which people do and say things while pretending to be someone else or while pretending to be in a particular situation.
Maybe that doesn't fit the experience of any of the games you've played in, I'm not going to tell you what you've experienced. But in exchange, you shouldn't tell us what we've experienced. I don't think most groups even track xp these days, at least, most of the one's I've seen haven't. It's a pretty hard argument to win telling other people they haven't done the things they have.

Once someone reaches the age where they have a theory of mind, it really isn't that hard to put themself in someone else's shoes.