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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Belisi" data-source="post: 4909414" data-attributes="member: 49885">Though I'll be mentioning Dungeons and Dragons in this thread, the core issue at hand can very easily apply to any game system, so bear with me.So the other day my friends and I decided to roll up some characters for a 2nd edition campaign. Having only been involved in the hobby for the past six years, I have never played 2nd edition before and I was quite excited about the idea.I roll up an elven thief with the stats: 14, 18, 13, 16, 11, 14. Needless to say I'm pleased. We move on to choosing our weapon and non-weapon proficiencies (for those not in the know, non-weapon proficiencies are skills, things like swimming, read/write, etc.). For my weapons I choose short sword and short bow, and since everyone was telling me to "just pick something" for my non-weapon proficiencies I choose appraisal, tightrope walking, and tumbling.After I picked my proficiencies one of my friends looked over at me and asked if I took the "Use Rope" skill, and I told him I did not. After doing so, all of my friends were getting on my back about how I should have picked the skill and claiming that I was the "worst thief ever" and essentially saying that I'm throwing my character away because "use rope" is the most useful skill in the game and my choice of "tightrope walking" as a skill was worthless. After my one friend made the comment about "use rope" I promptly asked him, "if it's so useful then why didn't you take it?" He simply replied, "Because I have actual uses to the party." (he rolled up an elven ranger; his stats and skills escape me at the moment.)I ended up caving in and taking "use rope" over "tightrope walking," but I regret doing so. Now, I realize that the ability to use rope is quite a useful skill to have when adventuring, but shouldn't the status of "most useful skill in the game" depend on a DM's playing style and the situations he provides to the party? Surely the ability to use rope will not come in handy during all of them. To be frank, in my six years of gaming I cannot recall a single time we've needed to make a check to use rope. More importantly, just because it's a useful skill does not mean I have to take it. Perhaps the ability to use rope doesn't fit with my character concept, and tightrope walking is. Am I really hampering the party by not doing what everyone else wants me to do? And really, what's the point of character creation if I don't have a say in what he is and isn't capable of doing?So this is just my rant on what happened recently. It's been bugging me all day and I thought it would help if I wrote down my thoughts (which it did). What do you guys think? I'm curious to hear your opinions about character creation. Is creating your character the way you want of main importance, or is creating a character based on what the people in your party want more important?</blockquote>

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