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Message: <blockquote data-quote="innerdude" data-source="post: 5160844" data-attributes="member: 85870">No, this is exactly right--and depending on your gaming preference, it can be a good thing, or a bad thing. But, here's the real point--by filling a 1st-level character with more "win," this is an inherent concession to the perception that "fun" and "reward" for the individual players requires that characters must be effective in combat from the very second a campaign starts. Well, okay, but why is that any more fun than any other method? Is that inherently more "fun" or "rewarding" than a game where characters start out weaker, and must find unique and creative ways to A. either avoid combat entirely, or B. strategize in non-combat ways to maximize combat success? As a ruleset, 4th Edition has both good and bad points, and no edition of any RPG is perfect. But I also don't think it's a pejorative to say that 4th Edition's push to have 1st-level characters be more powerful, survivable, and combat-ready may be because combat is one of the fastest, easiest ways to create short-cycle reward gratification. For many groups of players, it's a lot harder to justify that "You'll appreciate the awesomeness of your character and the plot/story/hook 3 sessions from now" (even though that's often the type of gameplay I enjoy). It's much easier to say, "You'll appreciate your character's 'combat win' here, and now, and 3 times every gaming session from here on out." And as I stated in an earlier post, this may actually be a point in 4th Edition's favor when it comes to producing new "lifestyle" gamers and GMs. Because combat is a short-cycle reward, it doesn't take a fledgling RPG player 3 or 4 sessions to have a sense of accomplishment, and in many cases a fledgling GM can use that to his/her advantage until he/she is ready to tackle some of the longer-term world-building aspects (and this admission is from someone who doesn't really prefer the 4e rule system).At this point, though, the question should not entirely focus on how D&D has historically set up short-cycle vs. long-cycle rewards, but rather how does any gaming mechanic in any other system do so? For example, I would be fascinated to hear from people who play the Serenity RPG how its intrinsic player action / reward system plays out.</blockquote>

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