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Message: <blockquote data-quote="ExploderWizard" data-source="post: 4980992" data-attributes="member: 66434">What the older games don't provide is the mechanical character building mini game that some players enjoy as much if not more than playing the actual game itself. Classes, feats, talents, builds, etc. are just virtual components for the character building erector sets. I don't think its the actual lack of options that the character builders miss. The examples of character types you provided show that there is a lot of variety in just a couple of classes.  If a completed character is an image then the game system is the medium used to render that image. In OD&D/BD&D the player just draws the character they want to play freehand and starts the game. A player who enjoys assembling characters needs to form that image with individual component puzzle pieces until the desired image is created.  A puzzle is hard to complete if it doesn't have a finite number of pieces. Limitations on the number and type of options available in the puzzle box are required in order for a strictly defined puzzle to have any meaning. Give a character building player a whole library of splatbooks and it could be weeks before they find all the pieces that make thier desired puzzle. The game isn't always about optimization either. Sometimes a particular image isn't very impressive stat-wise but it represents exactly the image that the player wants in recognizable component pieces. The image can be deconstructed and reconstructed with those same parts.  So while an OD&D and a 3E barbarian might have a similar look and feel while playing them, the inability of the player to deconstruct the OD&D barbarian's component parts that comprise that feel drives the player nuts. A hand sculpted image is all one piece.  I wonder how many older edition players really enjoy the character building game?</blockquote>

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