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General Tabletop Discussion
*TTRPGs General
Challenge the Players, Not the Characters' Stats
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<blockquote data-quote="mhacdebhandia" data-source="post: 4502247" data-attributes="member: 18832"><p>Because the character isn't just the stats written on the character sheet. Their personality traits exist in my head, as I imagine them; how the character <strong>reacts</strong> to situations or <strong>acts</strong> on their goals is more important in the actual course of the game than how big of a bonus they have to a Hide check.</p><p></p><p>I guess the thing is this: while I enjoy playing <em>D&D</em> from a mechanical point of view, because it's a fun game of action-adventure, what actually <strong>happens</strong> in the game is way more interesting to me when it's a story about characters having to make hard choices or struggling to achieve their goals than when it's a story about whether or not the characters get through a dungeon or manage to solve a mystery</p><p></p><p>The reason it's intensely boring to focus the game around challenging <strong>my</strong> problem-solving skills is because I consider "solving problems" and "overcoming challenges" to be <strong>completely secondary</strong> tools that we use in service of a story that is about the, well, character of the player characters.</p><p></p><p>Likewise, there's no point to the game if it's focused around the way <strong>I</strong> would react in a given situation, because I don't find that interesting; I don't game to find out how <strong>I</strong> would deal with someone murdering my brother, I game to play through the story of my character dealing with someone having murdered his brother - if for no other reason than that my character's way of dealing with that situation is way more likely to produce an entertaining narrative! "I leave it to the cops to solve the crime and become very frustrated and depressed if they can't" isn't really a great story, you know?</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="mhacdebhandia, post: 4502247, member: 18832"] Because the character isn't just the stats written on the character sheet. Their personality traits exist in my head, as I imagine them; how the character [b]reacts[/b] to situations or [b]acts[/b] on their goals is more important in the actual course of the game than how big of a bonus they have to a Hide check. I guess the thing is this: while I enjoy playing [i]D&D[/i] from a mechanical point of view, because it's a fun game of action-adventure, what actually [b]happens[/b] in the game is way more interesting to me when it's a story about characters having to make hard choices or struggling to achieve their goals than when it's a story about whether or not the characters get through a dungeon or manage to solve a mystery The reason it's intensely boring to focus the game around challenging [b]my[/b] problem-solving skills is because I consider "solving problems" and "overcoming challenges" to be [b]completely secondary[/b] tools that we use in service of a story that is about the, well, character of the player characters. Likewise, there's no point to the game if it's focused around the way [b]I[/b] would react in a given situation, because I don't find that interesting; I don't game to find out how [b]I[/b] would deal with someone murdering my brother, I game to play through the story of my character dealing with someone having murdered his brother - if for no other reason than that my character's way of dealing with that situation is way more likely to produce an entertaining narrative! "I leave it to the cops to solve the crime and become very frustrated and depressed if they can't" isn't really a great story, you know? [/QUOTE]
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