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!

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="evilbob" data-source="post: 6501649" data-attributes="member: 9789">A long while back I was also frustrated at the difference between watching players who had optimal race/class combos with well-placed ability scores vs. players who wanted to play their own thing (and were very unoptimized).  It was frustrating because even though the non-optimized players couldn't really put their finger on any one specific thing, they just didn't enjoy the game as much - they failed a little more often, missed a little more often, and didn't really get to DO things a little more often compared to their optimized compatriots.  The players wouldn't really even be able to describe their specific frustrations, but I could see it from a meta perspective while leading the game.  And I hated that they weren't able to enjoy the game as much because they weren't as optimized.  (Also note that there is absolutely a level of relativity in this:  if no one were optimized, they probably wouldn't have noticed anything.  But when some are and some aren't, it's the comparison that will get you.)For a while I would just strongly lead players into optimized combinations during character creation, since I knew their overall play experience would be more enjoyable (hit more, succeed more, DO more, etc.) - but I later realized I was effectively ruining their character concepts.  Once I realized that, I decided to stop limiting the players, and start adjusting the rules.  So I started letting any race give a bonus to any score, for example.  Because in the end, it's way more important that someone be able to play the character they want - and not just fail a lot more because it's an oddball (read:  interesting) choice - than to keep to any long-standing traditions of subtly encouraging very specific class/race cliches.  And it's worked for us ever since.</blockquote>

Verification