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Roll Player -> Role Player .. hopefully

Ave Rage

First Post
So we're in a ship drawing from the deck of many things. You know, everyday stuff, when the group power gamer takes his turn to draw.

He's a half-orc barbarian with 20 str and a great sword. Just basically kills stuff with his great stats (18, bunch of 15's. He's pretty smart for a barbarian/half orc. So lots of potential that he doesn't care to realize)

So he says "I'll draw 4 cards!" and proceeds to draw horrible card after horrible card. Finally resulting in his soul being ripped from his body and sent to who knows where. Our party cleric prays to his god in a last ditch effort to save him (we're no where powerful enough to do anything else) the DM asks the cleric to roll a percentage die, and he rolls extremely high on the % dice and the great god Kool-Aid (did I forget to mention our cleric was the cleric of 'fun'?) comes and summons his soul back into his body under certain conditions.

Now the barb who used to be CN is now LG and probably going to take levels in paladin (serving Kool-Aid). Hopefully he'll take on this new role of god's hand in the mortal realm and step up his involvement outside of battle. After the initial shock/"you can't do this to me" statements, the player actually started to like the idea and the possibilities it represented. Role Playing oppurtunities, not just ways to increase damage. We told him about the immunity to diseases(if he became a paladin) which he quickly figured meant immunity to STD's which I'm sure he'll make liberal use of in the next few gaming sessions (god of fun and all ;) )

The main reason he went along with this was because the DM encourages Role Playing. Initially, everyone got to roll stats as usual (4d6, drop lowest one, rerolling 1's, choosing where to put stats), as well as bonuses like getting to re-roll if the total bonuses were low. After that, it becomes a lot worse, with a character getting 3d6 to roll, and he gets what he gets where he got them. Good Role Playing would get the DM to loosen up, starting with re-rolling of ones, then choosing where stats go, and so on. If a Player did very well, they could even end up with major bonuses, like 5d6 and rerolling of 2's. Needless to say, the Player in question did not role play at all. So he was given the option of rolling his stats first, to see what he would be working with if he didn't accept the Kool-Aid god's offer. The stats he rolled for a 'new character' had two fifteens, with the lowest stat being a 9, and yet this was enough to scare him into complying with the Big Man.

Have any of you guys turned a powergamer into a roleplayer with any success? I mean, having a player who never even created a paragraph backstory before sit down and think about a history for their character and such.
 

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Wormwood

Adventurer
Ave Rage said:
Have any of you guys turned a powergamer into a roleplayer with any success? I mean, having a player who never even created a paragraph backstory before sit down and think about a history for their character and such.

Nope, but I have managed to turn a couple of heavy roleplayers into big ol' powergamers. ;)
 

ced1106

Explorer
Hmmm... Looks like you've manage to encourage roleplaying through powergaming "bennies"? Dunno if EnWorld runs columns (RPGnet has some), but I'd really like to see any advice you can provide on using "bennies" (eg. dice re-rolls, pointing out class abilities) to encourage powergames to roleplay better.

Thanks,


Cedric.
aka. Washu! ^O^
 

clark411

First Post
Please, please tell me the avatar of Kool Aid burst through the hull of the ship you were in for his entrance!

I've never seen a powergamer turned into a roleplayer truly, only advance into at best a kind of hybrid power-roleplaying gamer... and I don't think that player would ever remove his min-maxing ways as it's what he considers fun. It's fun to be extremely powerful, and acting the part is what is roleplaying to him.. it'd be no fun at all to roleplay an ordinary person, or even an above ordinary one for him.. and I can't really justify a stance that role is better than roll.. both are pivotal to the game I suppose, and it's utterly subjective- so to each his or her own.

Meh, back on track- what I have found is that powergamers will shamelessly abuse whatever edges they recieve (as it's a game and about winning) and use roleplay if necessary to get those benefits / maintain them.. the roleplay is either used in boasting of one's greatness, or to make sure the greatness is obvious to others around the table (like the level 4 guy saying: "I swing my mighty magical axe as a chorus of awestruck astral devas sing above in the heavens! A hush comes as the blow lands- 52 damage GM sir. Make a Fort save for it" or something), so upping bene's may not necessarily transform a player's motives, but instead encourage them.
 
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fba827

Adventurer
don 't have much to share but it's a good story :)

the way you describe it, it seems the person will find ways to enjoy this new role (and that's what matters :D )
 

Ave Rage

First Post
Wormwood:
Heh.

Ced1106:
The DM has only really been using this tactic for a short time, but it seems like it is working to some extent. He originally was going to have people play the opposite sex if they died, but decided against that after an hour. Just trying to give an incentive to roleplay without totally screwing anyone else, I guess.

Clark411:
Kool-Aid ripped the ship in twain with his mental abilities, then road atop a tsunami wave which froze in place a few hundred yards from the boat, surfing down the edge until he finally stopped and faced the open middle parts ofthe ship (where the characters were). As for powergamers never really changing, the DM is alright with that. Having someone use roleplaying to get an edge is still roleplaying, and betters the other players experience.

fba827:
Yup. Although, there is always the chance he will just slaughter Evil creatures in the name of his taste-a-licious god. But if he does, he'll have to face a courtroom. MORE ROLEPLAYING! Everybody wins!
 

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