NOW LIVE! Today's the day you meet your new best friend. You don’t have to leave Wolfy behind... In 'Pets & Sidekicks' your companions level up with you!

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Message: <blockquote data-quote="ForceUser" data-source="post: 1832831" data-attributes="member: 2785">Powergaming is a lot of things to a lot of people. To some it is abhorrent, to others amusing or frustrating; to others, it is simply how things are done. To me, it's passe. Powergamers are missing the point of what gaming means to me as a DM. But what is powergaming, exactly? It is a brazenly flippant response to a DM's hard work, it is a perceived imbalance in the application of game mechanics, and it is a wrong-headed approach to participating in RPGs.Powergaming is going overboard in building an efficient character and with a general disregard for the campaign milieu. If everyone is playing simple human single-classed characters in a low-magic game based on medieval Europe, and you insist on playing a spiked chain-wielding half-blue dragon/half-troll fighter/sorcerer/spellfire wielder from Faerun, you're powergaming; unless, of course, there is a specific agreed-upon story reason for why your character exists.Powergaming is based on perception. Take that same half-dragon and throw him in a mid-level Planescape game focused on Faerunian intrigue, and he's no longer out of the ordinary, especially if everyone is playing similarly tweaked-out characters. Powergaming is the opportunistic player's approach to your campaign. If the player comes to you and says that based on your setting he has this cool but unusual character idea, and asks if you can work something out with him, he's not powergaming; he's looking for a unique niche in your campaign world, and he's excited about participating in the story of your setting. If, on the other hand, he starts asking for unusual or special concessions before he even bothers to ask what the setting is like, or if he twinks out an egregiously disproportionate mechanical monster using five different sourcebooks with no regard for setting or story, or without even giving thought to a name for his character; then he's powergaming. Powergaming is not unusual among some of the guys I game with, but it is lessening as the players realize the basic fact that no matter how twinked out their character is, the DM can always use tougher monsters with almost no extra effort. As long as the DM continues to emphasize story over mechanics, the powergaming will take a back seat. And if not, you can always find other players more in line with your own gaming style.</blockquote>

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