ColonelHardisson said:
Why view it as a DM control issue? I've played characters in games that I'd consider low-powered - CoC, for example - and games that are high-powered - various iterations of friends' D&D campaigns - and there is definitely a distinction beyond DM/player conflict. My CoC characters felt relatively helpless; I knew they were much less capable than my D&D characters in almost any sense. I suppose one could talk about context, but that would still entail acknowledging that one game was more geared to a higher "power" level than another.
To be quite frank, I don't know which one of us isn't understanding what lies "beyond".
First, my motivation was to answer to this expression of "
incredibly powerful" characters. Incredibly? Why "incredibly"?
Now, characters in themselves are not any less able than others of other games. Their
theorical ability to affect the fictitious world is not so much defined by their abilities (among which the ones that are actively described in the rulebook form an infinitesimal fraction of the whole when compared to the ability to talk, to interact, to touch items, the near infinity of choices their fictitious alter-egos have) as they are by the opposition they face on average. CoC characters may feel helpless in front of Great Cthulhu. Doesn't mean they are inherently powerless (in fact, when you look closely at D&D, the actions of PCs are much more framed in a combat round than with the Basic RPS. In most cases, when talking about game design, the more abilities you describe in the rulebook, the more the players will feel empowered, but the more they will be framed in what they can do and cannot do. Example: how many of us where practicing stunts and maneuvers with Stormbringer way before the Iron Might? I did. But D&D with its combat system frames so much the action available to characters that suddenly it comes as a surprise that you could have stunts in a combat - and to be clear, I'm glad they are part of Iron Heroes!).
In
practice, the opposition the PCs will face will be defined and designed by the DM. This is the DM who chooses to use this NPC or that creature to throw at the feet of their players. The DM (his choices, interpretations of rules, tastes, referee abilities etc) is the one in charge in practice. Not the rulebook. So whether the game itself is low powered or high powered is defined by the DMs choice.
To take an example, if I run a CoC game with people trapped in a haunted house facing cthonians awakening in the depths of the property, they will probably be helpless. However, if I run a game in which they find a key to the Dreamlands and have the opportunity to become kings of one of its forgotten kingdoms, chances are they won't feel as helpless. In both cases, we are talking about CoC games, but the Keeper chooses what to run and how.
Same thing in D&D. On one hand, have 10th level characters facing 6 orcs and indeed, as a DM you'll feel "hey, these characters are SO powerful!". On the other hand, make them face the dread and despair of the lair of two Ancient Wyrms and their spawns, and they will flee, discuss or die. The same way, you could say that the fact a D&D wizard can teleport and fly makes it more powerful than a Cthulhu PC. Well no. That all depends on circumstances and actually how these abilities are useful or not in any given situation. You can fly as much as you want in front of Great Cthulhu. You just become a mosquito instead of a bug.
