I did. My question stands. I don't want to get told off for answering wrong. Although in doing so, I got told off for asking how to answer. So I guess I'm getting told off.
Should PCs Be Exceptional?
- Thread starter Reynard
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MGibster
Legend
I'm going to define exceptional as being atypical, or outside the norm, so in that sense the PCs in most every game are exceptional people. Even in a game like Call of Cthulhu, where all the investigators are "regular people," just being willing to investigate and combat supernatural, sanity blasting threats that might eat their skin makes them exceptional. i.e. Most of us aren't playing a rousing game of Managers & HR, we're playing something where our characters are doing something outside of the norm.
It depends on the individual campaign, but I like PCs to be exceptional – not necessarily The Chosen Ones, but highly competent people. Look at the core crew on the Expanse, for example – they have both a science genius, one of the most lethal combatants in the world, and an extremely persuasive man with an unbreakable moral backbone. Oh, and a pretty good pilot too.
Campbell
Relaxed Intensity
How exceptional the characters are compared to the general population will vary from game to game, but I generally characters to be capable (but not too capable) in comparison to the situation the game focuses on. What I do not generally like is dramatic shifts in character capability over the course of a game. I like to pretty much start with the character I'm going to play over the course of the game.
I want character growth and change, but the sort of dramatic shifts in character capabilities often detracts from that for me, often requiring abandoning burgeoning conflicts because they are no longer level appropriate. One of my least favorite parts of playing the last couple Blades in the Dark games I was a player in was the trivializing of conflicts there was a lot of thematic juice left in as we went up in Tier.
I want character growth and change, but the sort of dramatic shifts in character capabilities often detracts from that for me, often requiring abandoning burgeoning conflicts because they are no longer level appropriate. One of my least favorite parts of playing the last couple Blades in the Dark games I was a player in was the trivializing of conflicts there was a lot of thematic juice left in as we went up in Tier.
Micah Sweet
Level Up & OSR Enthusiast
All of the below is IMO.
I think PCs should fit within the statistical probability of whatever sort of being from which they sprang. They can and often are above average in some respect, but not egregiously so, and there should be every possibility that others from similar circumstances could be similarly above average, or even better. What makes PCs special is what they do in the setting once the campaign begins. It's the players choices, on their own or in reaction to circumstances, that determines the mark they leave on the world. And some luck. Luck is important.
PCs are the people we're pointing the camera at this week.
Micah Sweet
Level Up & OSR Enthusiast
No. All movies should have spaceships.
Micah Sweet
Level Up & OSR Enthusiast
Somebody has to be the highest, I guess.But what if they have the highest Midichlorian count of anyone in the entire Galaxy?
Micah Sweet
Level Up & OSR Enthusiast
First of all, because I believe action in play is what makes PCs special, I'm perfectly fine with them having a boring life beforehand, so I disagree with you there.
Secondly, I thought this was supposed to be personal opinion. What do the "vast majority" of games have to do with anything?
Argyle King
Legend
I think the PCs should be poised to become exceptional.
Where I'm not sure how to answer is in defining the gap between normal and exceptional.
In some games, exceptional may mean pew pew magic lasers firing from every orifice. In other games, exceptional may mean inspiring leadership while leading the charge against an enemy horde. While both are exceptional in their own way, I find the latter more interesting because of the journey to rise to the occasion and be something more rather than being created with an assumed position of superiority.
So, I suppose, yes, I want PCs to be exceptional, but I still want them to exist as part of the world rather than being separated into an inherent existence above it.
Where I'm not sure how to answer is in defining the gap between normal and exceptional.
In some games, exceptional may mean pew pew magic lasers firing from every orifice. In other games, exceptional may mean inspiring leadership while leading the charge against an enemy horde. While both are exceptional in their own way, I find the latter more interesting because of the journey to rise to the occasion and be something more rather than being created with an assumed position of superiority.
So, I suppose, yes, I want PCs to be exceptional, but I still want them to exist as part of the world rather than being separated into an inherent existence above it.
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bedir than
Full Moon Storyteller
I can only answer this for specific games and even then within various campaigns and stories.
A Twilight:2000 character is not exceptional.
A Synnibar character is also not exceptional.
And yet these two conceits play quite differently.
Within fantasy there are systems that intend for you to be a zero and maybe always be a zero. There are high fantasy systems and worlds where you are blessed/great.
None of these can be right or wrong.
A Twilight:2000 character is not exceptional.
A Synnibar character is also not exceptional.
And yet these two conceits play quite differently.
Within fantasy there are systems that intend for you to be a zero and maybe always be a zero. There are high fantasy systems and worlds where you are blessed/great.
None of these can be right or wrong.
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