Player or Character?

[HolyCouncilMagi]

Not entirely. Babies generally don't work that way. The whole point with babies is that someone else contributes some material at the beginning and it grows from there.

I mean... Maybe that isn't whole campaigns, but good adventure arcs at least do seem to work like babies in my experience. The GM provides the place to grow (wait, I thought the GM was god, now he's mom too!?), the players insert some material (their choices/actions), and then the adventure grows based on the interaction between the setting and the player's choices as consequences form from the players actions and individual decisions go on to have repercussions.

This assumes a good GM, of course. It's very easy to decide that you know what's best for the baby and not let the players have any input beyond being there, but that results in unhappiness for the players, a shell of adversity for the GM, and a sick baby.

... Did I just reference gene splicing in this analogy? I'm a terrible human being.