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Message: <blockquote data-quote="EzekielRaiden" data-source="post: 9551936" data-attributes="member: 6790260">Characters, for me, are models of nearly-real people that I have breathed life into, like Adam. They are labors of love, carefully thought through, weighing what is effective (meaning "optimization", even though I know many consider that a dirty word), what is interesting (meaning, concepts or ideas that intrigue me, regardless of other concerns), what is beneficial (meaning, does the party need a healer? A tank? A blaster? etc., but also what would spark interaction or provide contrast), and what naturally follows from the fiction (meaning if an idea is jarringly incongruous, it's out, whereas one that fits neatly is desirable unless it's too costly on some other axis).To treat my fictional characters as nothing more than a limp costume would instantly, and irrevocably, ruin my ability to invest in, play as, or enjoy those characters.Sure. That's a lofty goal, worthy of the pursuit.I cannot fulfill that goal without investing into my characters. I don't have the capacity. I genuinely have to invest into my characters in order to play them better at the table. To disinvest, to emotionally distance myself, would be to play worse at the table.He specifically spoke of things like "if the designers left well enough alone" and that, in general, without specifically mechanical loss conditions, all achievements are effectively pointless. Oh, and we can't forget the part where he just recently argued that the current state of affairs, meaning so-called "fast" levelling (>3 levels per year of weekly play) and "not ultra-lethal like OSR", is just the player population in general wanting a thing that's actually bad for the game. Perhaps I am misreading, but it absolutely comes across as "this is the only way, every other way is an aberration in whatever it does that isn't this."I have yet to see Lanefan explicitly say that this is exclusively personal preferences. It has always come across as "the game would be better for all players if it were this way" and I'm far from the only person who has seen this in his posts.I have, at times, argued that just because something is popular does not mean it is good or wise design. That is emphatically not the same as saying it's definitely bad design, which is what Lanefan specifically intended. Simply saying that popularity does not guarantee quality is a minimal argument, serving only to point out that an appeal to popularity is not a valid argument on its own.Further, more than once, Lanefan has specifically argued to me, personally, that I should stop having the emotions I have regarding characters. That isn't a "I like my preferences and think they're wonderful" argument; it's a "you should share my preferences, then my way would be obviously right for both of us" argument. Particularly in the context of the other referenced arguments above, where Lanefan either outright said, or heavily implied, that everything would be Just Better if only people would stop doing X (investing in characters from the start, feeling strong emotions about character deaths, wanting a thematically-satisfying conclusion, etc.)I have never, ever said that folks should stop having the emotions (or lack thereof) they have toward their characters, and have specifically gone out of my way to show examples both of where a standard I have proposed, like the one-way-function analysis, can sometimes point in directions opposite to my preferences. I'm really not sure what more I could say, short of simply surrendering, to make it clear that my goal is to give real, well-built support for as many distinct playstyles as possible under the D&D umbrella. I've beaten this drum enough that it's had to have its head replaced (would that we all could!), but I specifically champion things like "novice levels." I do so despite having negative interest in using them myself, because I believe that that's the best way to support a playstyle I don't personally like but which is reasonably popular and often given short shrift because of other important design goals (like "make early levels newbie-friendly" and "get characters cool powers/resources relatively quickly to excite the players").</blockquote>

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