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<blockquote data-quote="Hussar" data-source="post: 5693616" data-attributes="member: 22779">Why?&nbsp; There is nothing intrisic about the heroic genre that says what you claim it says.&nbsp; Sure, in a group story, one character might be better than another at a given task.&nbsp; Fair enough.&nbsp;&nbsp; But, it's pretty rare that one character gets forced out of the spotlight simply because he is incapable of doing anything meaningful in the situation.And, in stories where that does happen, typically that character trains/learns some trick/finds some widget that allows him/her to participate meaningfully the next time that situation occurs.&nbsp; So, the hobbits get weapon training and that sort of thing.On the extreme end of this, you wind up with the decker problem from Shadowrun where one character plays for extended periods of time while everyone else twiddles their thumbs.Variable spotlight is not a feature of heroic genre fiction.&nbsp; It's a feature of ALL fiction.&nbsp; But, we're not writing a novel here.&nbsp; We're playing a game.&nbsp; Characters in a novel don't care that they get to ride the pines, they have no feelings.&nbsp; Players tend to get a bit antsy when they have to spend signficant amounts of time forced out of play, not because they did anything wrong, but simply because they didn't check the right tick box during chargen.I've never believed that unique mechanics are required in order to make one character unique from the next character.&nbsp; If it were, then games like Spirit of the Century would fail.&nbsp; As would Savage Worlds.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Hussar, post: 5693616, member: 22779"] Why? There is nothing intrisic about the heroic genre that says what you claim it says. Sure, in a group story, one character might be better than another at a given task. Fair enough. But, it's pretty rare that one character gets [u]forced[/u] out of the spotlight simply because he is incapable of doing anything meaningful in the situation. And, in stories where that does happen, typically that character trains/learns some trick/finds some widget that allows him/her to participate meaningfully the next time that situation occurs. So, the hobbits get weapon training and that sort of thing. On the extreme end of this, you wind up with the decker problem from Shadowrun where one character plays for extended periods of time while everyone else twiddles their thumbs. Variable spotlight is not a feature of heroic genre fiction. It's a feature of ALL fiction. But, we're not writing a novel here. We're playing a game. Characters in a novel don't care that they get to ride the pines, they have no feelings. Players tend to get a bit antsy when they have to spend signficant amounts of time forced out of play, not because they did anything wrong, but simply because they didn't check the right tick box during chargen. I've never believed that unique mechanics are required in order to make one character unique from the next character. If it were, then games like Spirit of the Century would fail. As would Savage Worlds. [/QUOTE]

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