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<blockquote data-quote="Majoru Oakheart" data-source="post: 4417793" data-attributes="member: 5143">This doesn't always work.&nbsp; I ran a Rifts game a number of years ago where I told the players they could be whatever they wanted in all the books, but they should understand that it was a high powered, cosmic campaign that would involve them dealing with some of the most powerful beings in the multiverse.&nbsp; That's why I was allowing anything.One of the players showed up with a martial artist.&nbsp; Another showed up as a cosmoknight.&nbsp; Yet another as a super hero with invulnerability.&nbsp; The martial artist died in the second round of combat...ever in the game.&nbsp; There was just no way for him to survive an encounter with anything that had the remote chance of challenging anyone else in the party.&nbsp; With him in the party, combat was simply not an option.The same thing works in reverse.&nbsp; Say you have one character who has no skills worth mentioning.&nbsp; He's decided to role play a barbarian who barely understands common.&nbsp; Now, as long as the game involves skills at ALL, during those times, he is not involved in the game.&nbsp; Meanwhile, his combat power is so far above everyone else that all of them are not involved during the combats.&nbsp; This causes hours of real life time where one player or another is sitting there, not doing anything and rather bored.4e enforces that no matter how dumb your character is, he still gets skills.&nbsp; No matter what skills you pick, you will still be able to use them.&nbsp; No matter what class you pick, you will still be useful in combat.&nbsp; No matter what powers you choose within your class, you'll still be useful in combat.That's really the point.&nbsp; Keep ALL players involved in ALL parts of the game instead of saying &quot;You are the combat character, you can sit there and read a book for the next 2 hours as the adventure is about discovering who the murderer is and your character has no useful skills.&nbsp; Don't worry, you'll be able to kill monsters in a couple of hours when I'll tell the skill characters to read books during combat.&quot;</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Majoru Oakheart, post: 4417793, member: 5143"] This doesn't always work. I ran a Rifts game a number of years ago where I told the players they could be whatever they wanted in all the books, but they should understand that it was a high powered, cosmic campaign that would involve them dealing with some of the most powerful beings in the multiverse. That's why I was allowing anything. One of the players showed up with a martial artist. Another showed up as a cosmoknight. Yet another as a super hero with invulnerability. The martial artist died in the second round of combat...ever in the game. There was just no way for him to survive an encounter with anything that had the remote chance of challenging anyone else in the party. With him in the party, combat was simply not an option. The same thing works in reverse. Say you have one character who has no skills worth mentioning. He's decided to role play a barbarian who barely understands common. Now, as long as the game involves skills at ALL, during those times, he is not involved in the game. Meanwhile, his combat power is so far above everyone else that all of them are not involved during the combats. This causes hours of real life time where one player or another is sitting there, not doing anything and rather bored. 4e enforces that no matter how dumb your character is, he still gets skills. No matter what skills you pick, you will still be able to use them. No matter what class you pick, you will still be useful in combat. No matter what powers you choose within your class, you'll still be useful in combat. That's really the point. Keep ALL players involved in ALL parts of the game instead of saying "You are the combat character, you can sit there and read a book for the next 2 hours as the adventure is about discovering who the murderer is and your character has no useful skills. Don't worry, you'll be able to kill monsters in a couple of hours when I'll tell the skill characters to read books during combat." [/QUOTE]

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