Why PCs should be competent, or "I got a lot of past in my past"

[Thomas Shey]

Kind of. What you often don't see in the comics is the super learning to control their powers before they learn of the various ways they could express those powers. In this one story I read years ago, a cryokinetic by the name of Glacier spent a month learning how to rein in his powers while doing completely ordinary things like taking a shower, having a meal or giving someone else a hug. Only when he was able to take a shower (without freezing the pipes and causing them to burst), eat a meal (without turning it into a frozen dinner or a slushie) or hug someone (without freezing them to death) was he able to think of all the creative ways he could use his cryokinesis.

So sometimes it's nice to see how a character became competent after spending a lot of time and effort getting there.

Well, the problem of pushing it down to quite that level is it turns the game into a lot of following individual characters, and its at least perceived that RPGs are mostly about following the characters as a group, so that's not going to seem to be attractive (even assuming someone's powers start quite that out of control out the gate in the first place).

 

[Campbell]

What's most important to me is that player characters are connected. I want them to have relevant relationships that they leverage and heighten the emotional stakes of situations. I want history, but like history that does not stay history. I want characters who can confidently move through social situations because they have a strong sense of the players involved.

For me competence is always in regard to the current fictional situation. I want characters who are capable of overcoming the odds in front of them, but also very much capable of faltering. I want to thread the needle, so things stay tense.

I do think there is a minimal amount of competence you need to justify a character's connection to the tense situations they find themselves in.

That's a really long way to say what makes Wolverine interesting is not what he can do, but his longstanding relationships with Weapon X, Sabertooth, the Silver Samurai, etc.

 

[Umbran]

Secondly, all of this assumes that "telling a story" is what you're trying to do. I see TTRPGs more as depicting people in an imaginary world.

Yeah, but if that's all it is, why aren't we depicting, well, peasants and stuff?

We are more depicting interesting people with cool abilities in dynamic and dangerous situations.

Which starts to sound at least story-adjacent.

 

[Umbran]

This assumes that the characters are meant to represent action heroes, and not just people motivated toward an adventuring life.

You say that like there's a significant difference.

 

[Wolfpack48]

Yeah, but if that's all it is, why aren't we depicting, well, peasants and stuff?

We are more depicting interesting people with cool abilities in dynamic and dangerous situations.

Which starts to sound at least story-adjacent.

I always think of the story as what you remember and talk about after you have played the adventure. I don’t think about a story while I’m playing in the imagined scenario and world. The story is the result, the roleplaying creates it as a byproduct.

 

[Micah Sweet]

You say that like there's a significant difference.

Action heroes have plot armor. Big difference to me at least.

 

[Micah Sweet]

Yeah, but if that's all it is, why aren't we depicting, well, peasants and stuff?

We are more depicting interesting people with cool abilities in dynamic and dangerous situations.

Which starts to sound at least story-adjacent.

We are depicting peasants, daily life, and whatnot. At least, it's part of what I depict in my games.

 

[W'rkncacnter]

Action heroes have plot armor.

hit points

 

[Micah Sweet]

hit points

Not the same thing, and I will no longer engage in the "but hit points" excuse whenever a dissenting opinion about narrative is voiced. You'll have to do better than that.

 

[W'rkncacnter]

You'll have to do better than that.

if i had a better joke, i would've made it. i guess if we were still using 1e saves, i could've said that...