Do you get the chance to shine in the game?

[Plane Sailing]

Hah! Priggle rules!

"Hey, you, little fella... Paggit,"

"Priggle"

"Whatever. We want you to scout at the back from now on"

"Why?"

"It's too difficult to pay attention to you when you bring back scouting reports. Plus Galthia thinks you get too much attention"

(Priggle looks around for rolleyes smiley, even though he knows it doesn't exist any more)

 

[William Ronald]

It helps to talk to the DM. Someone in my game (Galthia) built his character to be a scout, but a deep gnome NPC already had that task. When the player confessed that he felt somewhat frustrated, it was simplicity itself to have the NPC take "back scouting" duty and give the PC the much more important forward scouting position. I was happy to switch things around a bit in order to let him do what he was best at.

IA very important point!!! I think that communication and understanding are crucial to DM and player interaction. That was one of the problems in my group at the end.

One way DMs can help facilitate this is to try to talk to the players both as a group and as individuals. I think a good question for DMs to ask themselves is "Did all of the characters have a chance to make a difference recently?"

 

[ForceUser]

I feel that it is the responsibility of the DM to craft his campaign to allow everyone's character a moment in the sun from time to time. That said, it helps if players present DMs with potential character ideas before getting their hearts set on them, to make sure they'd work within the context of the game. A campaign set against the White Kingdom of the Ghouls, for instance, doesn't much allow for a cool rogue character to shine. Notice there are no rogues in P-Kitty's campaign.

 

[Thanee]

Maybe you designed your monk to be a mage killer, but never actually got to face a mage.

You better hope so! Foolish monks!

Anyways, we do face diverse enough challenges and situations so that pretty much every character will have shiny and shadowy moments.

Bye
Thanee

 

[the Jester]

Someone in my game (Galthia) built his character to be a scout, but a deep gnome NPC already had that task.

Wow, who's the gnome? Did you skip over him in your SH?

 

[ForceUser]

Wow, who's the gnome? Did you skip over him in your SH?

It's Priggle.

 

[Thanee]

Just thought, the gnome is so good as a scout, that even the readers of the SH didn't notice him!

Bye
Thanee

 

[Altamont Ravenard]

I'd say that in the games I play in (or DM), some people don't always get a time to shine. Those people are usually sub-optimized fighter characters. The best example would be the "low-magic" game. In the world we play in, there is very little magic. Sorcerers are inexistant, and Wizards are very rare. We were thus encouraged to play fighter type characters. The party consists in (IIRC)
half-orc barbarian 8
human cleric 8
human paladin 8
elven fighter (10-str archer)
human barbarian 1 / rogue 5.

As you can see, there is a little disparity in levels (the elven fighter and the barbarian / rogue (me) have come later in the adventure).

The game is somewhat combat-oriented (but not excessively). In combat, the barbarian shines. Always. He can dish it out, and can take it. The paladin and cleric have their moments. The archer and me, well... Not so much.

I can be an effective scout when not in combat, but it doesn't do me good when every one else (except for the elf) is in heavy armor. I could go alone, but then, the rest of the players would just sit there and do nothing (which I don't like to impose on them too often).

So, what I'm trying to say is there is a greater chance that someone won't get a chance to shine when a few people in the same group have a similar role.

(well duhhh...)

AR

 

[ForceUser]

I can be an effective scout when not in combat, but it doesn't do me good when every one else (except for the elf) is in heavy armor. I could go alone, but then, the rest of the players would just sit there and do nothing (which I don't like to impose on them too often).

A recurring rogue issue. As a DM I address this by cutting the party rogue some slack when he wants to try something fun. When the rogue player wants to do some cool rogue stuff, such as engaging in espionage (he's a spy) and information gathering, I simply expect my other players to sit quietly or leave the table while he does his thing. I also try to keep those solo excursions as brief as possible without rushing him - a fine art. The player, though, has no complaints. He loves his character.

 

[Herpes Cineplex]

The first game I played in back in high school (AD&D2), I played a smart, sneaky, scout-type thief in a party that had both a paladin and a priest of Tempus, the god of war.

Everywhere we went, those two guys would kill the sh-t out of anything that jumped at us, fearlessly kick open any locked door that barred our path, and generally handle every situation perfectly. The campaign was very heavy on combat, and they were so much better at combat than my character that most of the time everyone was better off if I just hung out next to the party's wizard and traded snide comments with him rather than waste time trying to hit something. Backstab opportunities? Never heard of 'em; every fight was against opponents who knew where we were and the GM didn't believe in letting anyone get a backstab in while a big melee combat was raging.

I guess a few times they threw me a bone and let me disarm a trap, but that was basically the extent of it.

It was, without a doubt, the one character in my library I can point to and say "This was completely ill-suited for the game, so utterly out of place and wrong that I can't believe I even tried playing it."


My D&D3 experiences have been better, of course. Not just because the rules are so much better or because the group I'm playing with is better (though both of those are true), but because since high school I've learned to find a niche during character creation, to stake it out properly, and to let the GM and the other players know what I want to do with it. Keeps me from overlapping into other people's spotlights, and gives me something that I can shine at.

--
it also helps that there's an actual skill system now
ryan