Murder Hobo

...and Beyond!
Not sure what it says about me, but I have always enjoyed the term "murder hobo" as used in reference to old school PCs, especially White Box, who have no connection to society, and no permanent home, and who seek treasure by killing monsters (defined as pretty much anyone/anything who has said treasure). The wandering lifestyle of the endless road has some romantic appeal, especially when one doesn't really have to live it. Imagine no ties, no responsibilities, no obligations, no time schedule, that's one form of fantasy, right there. To go where one likes, when one likes and do as one pleases. Now add a little magic!
Treasure is pretty much defined as wealth no one really owns. It's there for the finding. Maybe it's in the temporary possession of someone who stole it, or found it with no real claim to it. Or buried it long ago and left a map. Maybe it is just guarded by some creature possessing  no real property rights to it, rather like a giant crow that accumulates shiny objects. Winning the treasure by one's brawn, or better yet, wits is the object of the game, it earns experience points which can be used to level-up and grow stronger, so as to be able to take more stuff from yet bigger monsters. It's the "rags to riches" story with a twist. That is definitely one way of looking at the game and one I shared for a number of years. One of my early referees would call me and my friend "The Hack and Slash Brothers", and I loved it! Even though I had some inkling it wasn't a compliment. He was hoping to run a world where adventure could involve intrigue, and mystery, politics, and skulduggery. We just wanted to kill monsters and grab treasure.
My referee friend was not alone in his desire for more. The game that started as a dungeon delving one-off was soon to grow into campaigns involving PCs with connections to the wider world (all make believe of course). Game designers soon gave the hobby products, including Chivalry and Sorcery and RuneQuest, that assume from the start players will play with characters who are tightly intertwined with the society in which the game takes place, thereby offering social adventure as well as exploration of dungeon, wilderness and urban environments. Progression up the social scale, accumulation of relationships and obligations and memberships in cults, secret societies and organizations of power become just as much a goal in the game as accumulating wealth and glory.
In my personal hobby journey, I credit the game Call of Cthulhu (CoC) with teaching me there could be fun in more than playing a murder hobo. Chaosium's CoC was written by Sandy Petersen in 1981. I bought my first edition at GenCon the year it was released and instantly my gaming was changed. In CoC one plays an investigator of the supernatural (usually during the 1920's). The investigator has ability scores and skills and hit points and something new (at the time at least), sanity. Yes, the PC can go insane from being exposed to too many things "man was not meant to know". It was great fun. Suddenly solving mysteries by talking to NPCs, getting the police to arrest bad guys by presenting them evidence of wrong doing, was perhaps more important than combat. Playing CoC I learned to "play a role", to develop a character other than my own alter ego, to speak as that other person, to make decisions I thought they would make, and to act insane at times when the PC's sanity (or lack of) called for it. (It of course made me a much better referee as well.)
Today I see White Box and the hobby in a different light from those heady days of hack-n-slash. I see it as about world building, exploration and discovery. I see it as about playing a role different from myself. I see it as about investigation, building relationships, obligations, social standing and being a part of a shared fictional society, culture and world. And I still see it as killing monsters and taking their stuff. It's all of those things and more. It's getting together with friends around a table, joking and laughing and together making stories happen, both real and imagined. It's about meeting new people and sharing ideas. It's about self expression and entertaining others. It is about what you want it to be.