Building a character is like designing a magic deck...
WayneLigon
Adventurer
Only in the sense that in all systems that allow choice, people tend to chose the best ones that get them to the place they want to be.
JoeGKushner
First Post
In terms of min-maxing, one of the things I like about systems like Gurps, Hero, BESM, etc... is that they provide you with almost all of the game rules in one book.
D&D does not do that and tends to encourage a purchasing frenzy in order to keep up with the best min-max combos all the while pretending to be a level and class based system while throwing mechanics like class subsitution, level substitution, fairly easily mutli-class, free multi-classing with prestige class, etc...
D&D does not do that and tends to encourage a purchasing frenzy in order to keep up with the best min-max combos all the while pretending to be a level and class based system while throwing mechanics like class subsitution, level substitution, fairly easily mutli-class, free multi-classing with prestige class, etc...
Wyrm Pilot
First Post
And some of us who have played Magic in the past, but found a better game, resent the comparison.Stormborn said:
Cheers,
Wyrm Pilot
prosfilaes
Adventurer
I understand this analogy completely. It's going through a huge pile of complex options, knowing that many are suboptimal, even if it's not obvious to the uneducated person and that many of the rest work well only with the right combination of other options. All depends on what options your playing area uses, since many people ban some of the optimal choices or certain collections of choices altogether.
prosfilaes said:
In that sense, there are similarities to be sure, but the same can be said of any time you have to make choices. Whether it's building a CCG deck (not just Magic), building a DDM warband, building an RPG character for any system, or even outfitting a single custom mech in battletech.
You have to make choices, and knowing how those choices interact and lead to bigger and better things is often key if your goal is "winning" (however you define that).
For me, one of my favorite Magic decks was dedicated to coin flipping (even without unglued cards. Winter Sky, Mana Clash, Goblin Assassin, Goblin Bomb, etc) and being a jackass to the guy with the browse deck (Soldier of Fortune, force him to shuffle his 500 card deck over and over and over...). I can only imagine that I played this deck the same reason some people play bards. For fun.
brehobit
Explorer
I had a hard time voting...
The answer is clearly that it _is_ like building a Magic deck (not that I've actually ever done so). But I have a love/hate relationship with it. I enjoy it as a player, but I find that it causes me problems as a DM (some are better at it than others).
Mark
The answer is clearly that it _is_ like building a Magic deck (not that I've actually ever done so). But I have a love/hate relationship with it. I enjoy it as a player, but I find that it causes me problems as a DM (some are better at it than others).
Mark
El Ravager
First Post
I also had a hard time answering it due to a love hate relationship.
In the end, I voted it is and I love it, because if all those options and books were taken away, I wouldn't be happy, even though sometimes its annoying to wade through a bunch of stuff just to get what you want.
In the end, I voted it is and I love it, because if all those options and books were taken away, I wouldn't be happy, even though sometimes its annoying to wade through a bunch of stuff just to get what you want.
Henry
Autoexreginated
I dislike it, as much as I dislike the current trend on relying on "builds" to the exclusion of having fun with the act of playing the game and socializing. Memorable stories aren't often told of characters optimized to handle situations perfectly, but are more often told of characters who made do with what they had and still came out on top. It's the failures and the pulling victory from defeat's jaws that we relate years after, rather than the perfectly executed operations.
