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Blog Post by Robert J. Schwalb
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<blockquote data-quote="I'm A Banana" data-source="post: 6325352" data-attributes="member: 2067"><p>It's a good read, and I basically agree with his thesis. While some folks have a lot of fun just building characters in isolation, for me, like for Rob, if the thing never sees play, it's largely irrelevant. It's not "real." It's not part of the fun that I have in playing the game. </p><p></p><p>Which is why for me, things like Pun Pun or CoDzilla or LFQW have never been that big a deal. I don't generally play with folks looking to exploit the the system. </p><p></p><p>But I've seen it happen. I've seen it happen most in 4e, actually (and 4e is less prone to it than most e's!). And usually, it just takes one. One person whose main source of fun is to squeeze the CharOp tomato 'till it squishes. And sometimes, they don't even need to squeeze that hard.</p><p></p><p>Lets take LFQW for an example, since Rob uses that himself. In a lot of cases, complaining about this is pure theorycraft -- at the levels most people play, at the tables most people play, this never becomes an actual in-play issue. But if you've got one of the math dudes at your table who knows how to run the numbers and can see that Wizards Win D&D, and so takes a wizard and then Wins D&D, suddenly the whole game sours because nothing can challenge him or because the other characters can't match his level of awesome. </p><p></p><p>And that guy wasn't doing anything WRONG, per se. His character is legal. He was following what he has fun doing (making big numbers!). Is it HIS fault that the designers and the other players can't work a system like he can? Who is anyone else to tell him that making a kick-ass character isn't kosher? Isn't that the point?</p><p></p><p>I think the thing is that this playstyle is something that it's hypothetically possible to <em>design out<em> -- that is, you can make your game so robust and solid that no matter how a player tries to exploit it, they can't do much damage.</em></em></p><p><em><em></em></em></p><p><em><em>In trying to address that problem, a game stops focusing on the play and starts trying to worry about character option balance, and that....kills. </em></em></p><p><em><em></em></em></p><p><em><em>It's a thorny issue, for sure, though.</em></em></p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="I'm A Banana, post: 6325352, member: 2067"] It's a good read, and I basically agree with his thesis. While some folks have a lot of fun just building characters in isolation, for me, like for Rob, if the thing never sees play, it's largely irrelevant. It's not "real." It's not part of the fun that I have in playing the game. Which is why for me, things like Pun Pun or CoDzilla or LFQW have never been that big a deal. I don't generally play with folks looking to exploit the the system. But I've seen it happen. I've seen it happen most in 4e, actually (and 4e is less prone to it than most e's!). And usually, it just takes one. One person whose main source of fun is to squeeze the CharOp tomato 'till it squishes. And sometimes, they don't even need to squeeze that hard. Lets take LFQW for an example, since Rob uses that himself. In a lot of cases, complaining about this is pure theorycraft -- at the levels most people play, at the tables most people play, this never becomes an actual in-play issue. But if you've got one of the math dudes at your table who knows how to run the numbers and can see that Wizards Win D&D, and so takes a wizard and then Wins D&D, suddenly the whole game sours because nothing can challenge him or because the other characters can't match his level of awesome. And that guy wasn't doing anything WRONG, per se. His character is legal. He was following what he has fun doing (making big numbers!). Is it HIS fault that the designers and the other players can't work a system like he can? Who is anyone else to tell him that making a kick-ass character isn't kosher? Isn't that the point? I think the thing is that this playstyle is something that it's hypothetically possible to [I]design out[I] -- that is, you can make your game so robust and solid that no matter how a player tries to exploit it, they can't do much damage. In trying to address that problem, a game stops focusing on the play and starts trying to worry about character option balance, and that....kills. It's a thorny issue, for sure, though.[/I][/I] [/QUOTE]
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