How important is it to you or your players for characters to feel "overpowered"?

[Wolfpack48]

So this one seems to be coming up more frequently in other discussions, especially as regards players comparing new games to D&D, so I am going to phrase this very "carefully"

How important is it for you or your players to feel their characters can basically RTFLPWN enemies?

I say this laughingly as someone who had plenty a character die in our old AD&D days. Do they expect they can run into a hail of bullets and come out unscathed? Kick in a door without a plan and fight 20 to 1 odds and come out smelling like a rose? Or even just slightly scuffed? When they roll a character do they expect they are ever going to be threatened, or are they creating a heroic model that shrugs off monsters with a dirty stare? I exaggerate a bit and could have asked "how important is it to feel "heroic?" but I chose the "OP" because it's come up specifically in a number of discussions.

In comments feel free to elaborate, and also maybe talk about age groups of players (I'll do a follow poll on this). I ask this follow up because from our own experience, we wanted more danger in our games as we got older, and wondering if there is any connection.

And for our theme song!

 

[Reynard]

This is a hard one to answer. Characters should feel "appropriately powerful" for the mood, genre and style of the game we are playing. that means one thing in Marvel Super Heroes and another in Call of Cthulhu.

I will say this: among other things, for me an RPG should feel challenging, like there is a decent chance of failure if I don't actually make an effort and pull out all the stops. And even then, maybe luck doesn't go my way.

I am not interested in knowing I am going to win no matter what (which is one reason I am anti-fudging as a player, if in "our" favor; roll 'em in the open!).

 

[sevenbastard]

The fear I have with many modern systems is I will build a under powered character. Thier is some underlying pressure to build effective charachters.

For example making a Pathfinder charachter stresses me out with all the options and build choices.

This wasn't really a problem back when you rolled for stats and got the charachter you got.

 

[TheHand]

I’ve found that this varies greatly from player to player, however I think most don’t necessarily want to feel overpowered. However, what most don’t want to feel is weak or ineffective; they want to be competent at the role they’ve chosen.

 

[Aldarc]

Either way and all between, I think that players want their characters to feel competent.

 

[Wolfpack48]

Remember, folks, this isn't a question about basic skill competency, but about power range of characters in relation to enemies they encounter. How easily should characters be able to dispose of said enemies without any planning or special preparation?

 

[Wolfpack48]

The fear I have with many modern systems is I will build a under powered character. Thier is some underlying pressure to build effective charachters.

For example making a Pathfinder charachter stresses me out with all the options and build choices.

This wasn't really a problem back when you rolled for stats and got the charachter you got.

Then you should probably choose that it's important in some ways to you, not neutral or unimportant.

 

[Wolfpack48]

I’ve found that this varies greatly from player to player, however I think most don’t necessarily want to feel overpowered. However, what most don’t want to feel is weak or ineffective; they want to be competent at the role they’ve chosen.

Again, then it probably should be on the important side of the scale, not unimportant.

 

[MGibster]

I don't really have any desire for my characters to be overpowered in any game I play. Of course what's overpowered depends on setting, genre, etc., etc. Generally speaking, I don't feel overpowered if bullets are bouncing off my character's chest in a superhero game but it's going to be weird if the same thing happens to my character in a Call of Cthulhu game. I tend to get bored with encounters where my character is overpowered and my opponents pose no threat. What's even the point of playing things out?

 

[nevin]

So this one seems to be coming up more frequently in other discussions, especially as regards players comparing new games to D&D, so I am going to phrase this very "carefully"

How important is it for you or your players to feel their characters can basically rtflpwn enemies?

I say this laughingly as someone who had plenty a character die in our old AD&D days. Do they expect they can run into a hail of bullets and come out unscathed? Kick in a door without a plan and fight 20 to 1 odds and come out smelling like a rose? Or even just slightly scuffed? When they roll a character do they expect they are ever going to be threatened, or are they creating a heroic model that shrugs off monsters with a dirty stare? I exaggerate a bit and could have asked "how important is it to feel "heroic?" but I chose the "OP" because it's come up specifically in a number of discussions.

In comments feel free to elaborate, and also maybe talk about age groups of players (I'll do a follow poll on this). I ask this follow up because from our own experience, we wanted more danger in our games as we got older, and wondering if there is any connection.

And for our theme song!

It depends. im currently running a spin off from a long campaign. the characters are dealing with epic stuff. they should have moments and even whole sessions where they are almost marvel heroes. making them only deal with thanos level stuff every game would suck so bad. ive played in high level games like that. your uber one step away from godhood character spends so much time barely surviving that you begin to wonder why would anyone do this. At high level pc's should waffle back and forth between "we rockc and "oh 9 hells what do we do know?"