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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Humanophile" data-source="post: 187426" data-attributes="member: 1049">There are a few major advantages to playing a low-powered game.  It's more intimate, and more on the level that your average player can understand.  (Plus, it's easier for most DM's to write/design for.)  And while one doesn't have to be an NPC class with low stats to pull it off, with D&D's steep power curve and speed of levelling, those help to put off power gain for at least a little while.Some of the major advantages of NPC classes are entirely intangible.  For instance, the player of William the Fighter probably visualizes him as a destined hero from the word go, and will probably play him as someone above the muckety-muck, someone who never gets dirty or has to go to the bathroom, someone less human than mythic.  And while mythic has its advantages, I'd venture to say that human is better for "pure" roleplay; bigwigs and mythic types tend to associate more and identify more with others of their type, and farmer brown is less someone you gain personal satisfaction from helping and more someone to protect because you're a good guy.  But give the same player Billy the Commoner, and his first thoughts are someone... well, common.  Someone more human, even if the commoner has some perk or other to make them equal in power.  (So long as that perk doesn't overpower the commoner either; a Drow commoner or a commoner with all 18's is more mythic, while one with 28 build points as opposed to the fighter's 22 will still have the psychological aura of "lower powered".)  Tangentally, commoners are more likely to have class skills applicable to their day-to-day doings, but that's an easily changed system artifact, so it just bears mention that Billy is more likely to have a profession (farmer).Second, power does insulate the powerful.  They tend not to suffer for their mistakes, they can do things that "normal folks" can't do which makes them feel appropriately more powerful and removed, they have the option of brute forcing their way around things more often, and there's the everpresent chance of their taking things like this for granted.  Plus the likelihood of someone deciding to abuse their power, and that's ignoring the large variety of realistically impossible (meaning impossible in the real world; your game naturally varies) powers the characters have at their disposal, which make it more tempting to look at a problem as "let's see what in my toolbox will work here" than to look at it as a human first.  I'm not saying that high powered roleplaying is impossible, just that it's harder to plan/DM for, and that there's a natural player tendency to see more powers as just a collection of powers and cool tricks.Meanwhile, at the lower end of the spectrum, while your chance of success in a given encounter is less than that of a more powerful character, your success feels more personal and more memorable (either through the brilliant planning needed or else the incredible luck).  You tend to focus more on things that the average player can identify with (you're more likely to deal with convenience store clerks or waitstaff than presidents and captains of industry), and what the characters can do is better approximated by what a normal person can do, making things just a little more intuitive for the average player.  (Plus, in a game with supernatural abilities [read: pretty much any game out there], low powered characters tend to have fewer supernatural abilities to bring to bear, tying into the last point.  And while neither Papers&Paychecks nor Fealty&Farming would be hits, I doubt most of us would live that way if we knew we were expemt from pain, could start our lives over at any time we chose, and actually had empirical knowledge that "fate" [in the form of the DM] was on our side.)  Plus, when your character is less able to buy out or demolish the inn singlehandedly, you have more reason to go out and do something for the money to cover the night's stay.  Similarly, when anyone with a sword has a chance to cause major injury or death, you tend to be less foolhardy in your dealings.And finally, there is the anti-powergaming backlash, but that seems to be more on the DM's side of the screen than the players (and as such, more likely to be "my third level characters are just earning basic equipment" than "I'm playing a third level fighter with just a club and padded armor").</blockquote>

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