Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="thormagni" data-source="post: 2744462" data-attributes="member: 13637">I've been wanting to comment on this thread since yesterday, but it is such a broad subject that I have been having a hard time narrowing my thoughts down. So here I sit, stuffed full of turkey and half-asleep. Let's see what I can come up with.There are basically two kinds of role-playing games you can run as a GM. A game where players get attached to their characters and a game where players don't. In the first type of game, death should be rare, meaningful and heroic. In the second type, death should be random, easy and meaningless. In the first type of game, players can have fun building a character up, exploring the character and feel free to role-play. In the second type of game, players can have fun overcoming obstacles, raking in the treasure and reveling in combat. In the first type of game, a character is a persona the player adopts while in the game. In the second type of game, a character is a set of numbers on a page, easily replaceable.As as converse to the above though, is the fact that a GM who makes death random, meaningless and easy is saying "Don't get attached to these characters, you won't have them long." A GM who makes death rare, meaningful and heroic is asking the players to spend some time and investment in these characters. Personally, I enjoy playing in the first type of game more than the second. Vince, I think you bring up an interesting point, that I will call "investment." In recent years, there has been a trend in games away from "let the dice fall where they may" toward giving players more control over random game events. I think this is also a recognition that playing an RPG is an interactive experience. Whether through fate points, or action dice or dramatic editing, which is  White Wolf called it in Aberrant D20 and Adventure D20, players are given the tools to do more to take control over their character and shape events to their liking.Depending on the rules in use, players can choose to "invest" those bonus dice, fate points, dramatic editing points at any point in the game, changing the outcome of a particular die roll, reshaping a scene more to their liking or making something happen that a straight reading of the rules probably wouldn't allow.  A player, by the very act of choosing when and where he would like to use that power, shows what he values. If I hoard my points until the fight with the big bad guy, then spend them to kill the bad guy in combat, I am showing that killing him would be a valuable moment in the game to me. If I use them to open the lock that I could not normally open, then I am saying that is a valuable moment in the game and it is worth it to me to invest those points to get the result I wanted.I can think of several times in Conan, where the ability to alter the result of a die roll using fate points made a massive difference in my enjoyment of the game. Playing "dice fall where they may" and my character is dead or a wimp who can't  hit when it counts. Using a fate point, and my character is a hero. So coming back to the original question, I think these new systems do a lot to show what your investment is. Maybe in a D20 game we need a group of motivational feats, that give you bonuses in certain psychological situations. Such as:Underdog: +2 to AC when you are fighting a vastly stronger foe.Defender: +2 to AC when you are fighting to protect someone else.Protector: +2 to AC when you are fighting to protect your home or family.</blockquote>

Verification