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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Majoru Oakheart" data-source="post: 6257070" data-attributes="member: 5143">Technically, there is very little within the rules of any edition encouraging "avatar" play vs "character" play.If we are talking about "gamestyle" elements that come directly out of the rules, I'd say that "avatar" play is a very small part of the rules in 1e.  The rules that encourage this were mainly the lack of non-physical skills.  If your character wanted to figure out a puzzle you'd have to do it for him since the character themselves didn't have any rules given ability to do that....except a Int Check which some DMs still used.I started in a 1e/2e hybrid game that used what our DM thought was the best of the rules from the 2 editions.  We weren't hardcore "avatar" players.  When I first learned to play my DM definitely told me that I was to consider what my character would do over everything.  Metagaming(using information my character didn't know) was strictly forbidden and we'd get yelled at each time we tried to have our 6 Int Half-Ogre character come up with a good idea.  Though we still died on a fairly regular basis and just rolled up new characters.I'd say that purely following the rules, the "gamestyle" elements that would come out most often at the table in the editions are as follows:1e: Keeping track of lots of fiddly rules and restrictions(you can't wear this armor...why?  You just can't).  Playing in dungeons that were randomly created with lots of random encounters.  Attempting to collect as much treasure as possible for XP.  Attempting certain actions over and over again to get XP(stealing things as a thief).  A focus on always starting at level 1 and attempting to claw your way to higher levels.  The adventures that came out were almost entirely dungeon crawls.2e: The rules were very similar to 1e so they created a similar game style.  However, the DMGs focus and recommendations were completely different so it tended to focus the game a different direction.  The emphasis was on story above all else.  No gold piece values on magic items or XP for finding magic items meant some campaigns would go the entire run from 1 to 20 without ever finding magic items.  The rules for creating them implied they should take a year or two in game and likely months of out of game time to successfully create one(if it was even possible at all).  Non-weapon proficiencies and Weapon Specialization made an attempt at customizing the character and having a better idea of what the "character" was capable of rather than the player.  No rules for when to use each monster meant you might randomly come across an ancient dragon or a beholder at 1st level depending on how mean your DM was.  A lack of abilities on your character sheet encouraged you to come up with any idea you could off the top of your head.  Many adventures coming out were about epic multi-part adventure where you defeated Grand Evil.3e/3.5e: Lots more customization.  A focus on character building above all else.  Each level you needed to consider how to build your character next level, so there was a cycle of character building(in 1e and 2e, character building was what you did at level 1 and never changed, you just got better).  This caused a focus on rules.  Characters were now a collection of even more fiddly rules that needed to be kept track of.  Each character would have a list of feats, each of which was an exception to the rules.  There were also just more rules in the book to keep track of, period.  Gameplay was filled with "gotcha!"(play and counter play.  "I sneak past the guard"-"No you don't, he has darkvision and can see you!", "I tumble past the guy"-"No you don't, his special ability makes it impossible to tumble around him").  This meant the focus switched even further to relying on the abilities listed on your character sheet more than anything else.  A focus on CRs, Encounter ELs, proper level pacing, wealth by level guidelines, and gold piece values on magic items created a game where balance was also the focus.  The game attempted to spell out precisely what the power level was for any NPC or PC at a given level.  Since they all had the same XP, wealth and magic items, they should all be equally powerful.  They were all able to defeat equally powerful enemies.  This created a focus on adventure creation that was also balanced and fair.  Since magic items were freely purchasable and craftable, they added to the character creation aspect I mention above.  Magic items became part of character creation since you were essentially doing character creation at every level.  Skills and feats now made the game even more a focus on what your character can do over what you can do.  This also with the EL guidelines really created an atmosphere of "Test the characters".  A focus on the rules as "laws of physics".  The rules were the same for all NPCs, all monster, all players.  Anything that happened in the game needed to be explained within that framework.  Symmetry was very important.  Adventures during this edition were all over the place without a focus on any one thing.4e: Still lots of focus on the character over the player.  However, the focus switched from feats and class features to powers.  An even greater focus on the balanced encounter and balanced play(everyone get the same framework so everyone should be more balanced).  Scaled back on the character building aspect on the game though it is there fairly strongly(most levels you went up you were just getting a new power because that's what the next level on your class chart said you'd get, you weren't deciding between every class and PrC in the game).  While there was a focus on equality(all monsters had close to the same bonuses to hit at the same levels, all PCs had the same number of powers at the same levels), there was no longer the same focus on symmetry: Monsters used different rules than PCs, NPCs could have a list of abilities that were just made up and didn't come from the list of player options.  Feats were less rules exceptions than just extra abilities so there was less focus on constantly remembering fiddly bits.  The game still maintained a focus on balance as 3e did.  However, the balance of focus switched from a day to an encounter.  Each battle was to be as dangerous and epic as the one before it.  This tended to change the focus of the game into a string of encounters(which was there during 3e, 4e just solidified it).  There is an emphasis on tactical play because of this.  Using your abilities to solve the encounter whether it was combat or skill challenge was paramount.  In fact, it caused the focus to be even more on the character sheet and what abilities were written on it.</blockquote>

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