How important is it to you or your players for characters to feel "overpowered"?

[Thomas Shey]

depends upon the venue. Here? Yeah. COTI? Nope. Even in the other games section on COTI, D&D is seldom discussed. But there are a shockingly large portion of Classic Traveller or nothing types.

Forums wrapped around a specific game system, even if they have the equivalent of an other-games area, are going to be heavily biased toward their focal system, and even when they have wiggle will tend to favor systems of an at least somewhat similar design ethic.

 

[Thomas Shey]

Interestingly, in the Glorantha universe of HeroQuest and RuneQuest, disease is the result of disease spirits, and to succumb to a disease is a battle between the spirits and the PC's own magical power. In other words: disease is its own form of combat, and as brutal and deadly as anything else.

You can make a pretty good argument that infectious disease is a battle in our own world; its just a combat between our immune system and the disease organism.

 

[Thomas Shey]

Ah, I misunderstood. Sorry.

I still question the example - I don't think you can take the bridge crew of Lower Decks to be the "primary characters" in the narrative. Yes, they are higher ranked, but they don't get the most screen time, nor is the narrative about those bridge characters. How, then, are they "primary"? (that's mostly a rhetorical question)

I'll go as far as to suggest that its entirely possible that both Mariner and Tendi at least are more capable than most of the bridge crew as events have revealed things over time. Mariner is a young Kirk with a leadership avoidance issue, and Tendi just wants to go do her science (which doesn't normally permit her leadership or combat skills to be visible).

And as you say, what about the bridge crew would make them the "primary characters" other than, perhaps, they have more volition because of their rank?

 

[Thomas Shey]

In Supers, It's almost de rigueur to play canon characters - Marvel and DC games come with extensive lists of characters for use.

Well, it doesn't hurt that in most supers settings (excluding deconstructionist ones) even in our post-Iron Age period, it is much more possible for super to lose conflicts and still be there to fight the next battle. Stakes tend to be about what losing those battles means in a broader sense than being about dying.

 

[Wolfpack48]

I'll go as far as to suggest that its entirely possible that both Mariner and Tendi at least are more capable than most of the bridge crew as events have revealed things over time. Mariner is a young Kirk with a leadership avoidance issue, and Tendi just wants to go do her science (which doesn't normally permit her leadership or combat skills to be visible).

And as you say, what about the bridge crew would make them the "primary characters" other than, perhaps, they have more volition because of their rank?

I think they are "primary characters" because they have been written so as the focus of the show. In original Star Trek, you'd assume that Kirk, Spock and McCoy will live from week to week because they have been designated by the writers as needed for the show to continue.

I don't assume that's necessarily the case in a TTRPG, but then I don't assume players will be playing Kirk, Spock or McCoy. I also don't assume characters will be designated to have plot armor that keeps them alive from session to session.

 

[Wolfpack48]

"I would submit that "primary" is not a function of power, but of focus.

Agree here. It's really a character focus designating the "primary character" as "essential." Not to say they can't be hurt or go through the wringer, but that they will continue on in subsequent episodes.

 

[Micah Sweet]

I'll be blunt: I don't expect that's really true. I doubt seriously, unless you were aiming for a very low combat campaign, that you'd use a system and setup where each combat was a coin flip. I can't see how that would serve even your purposes as you've expressed them.

Huh? A coin flip is more abstraction. I want as little as possible (which I know will never be zero, so please don't call that out).

 

[Lanefan]

Your character dies of a heart attack. Thank you for playing.

Fine. Gimme those roll-up documents, and where's my dice?

 

[Maxperson]

I would love it if RPGs would define what kinds of characters are expected for the game.

Do you want me to roll up Captain Kirk or a redshirt?

 

[Thomas Shey]

Huh? A coin flip is more abstraction. I want as little as possible (which I know will never be zero, so please don't call that out).

If both sides can be equally capable, and combats tend to be lethal, then combat is a coinflip. It has nothing to do with abstraction.