What I would really like is a system that de-emphasizes
mechanical decisions during chargen, and emphasizes
concept decisions instead.
Let's say I'm creating a fighter character. I want to make choices about my character and I want those choices to make a difference--they should be more than cosmetic; the character should play differently depending on the decisions I make.
But that doesn't mean I want to spend hours crunching numbers and comparing feat choices. I want to make decisions like: "Okay, my character is a grizzled old mercenary veteran who fights with a battle-axe in each hand, is good at scouting, and can drink a dwarf under the table." And having made those decisions, I want to be able to quickly and easily translate the relevant ones into mechanical terms, without having to worry about whether I'm gimping my PC in the process. ("Relevant" being an important word here. I need a mechanic to describe dual wielding battle-axes. I probably don't need a mechanic to describe massive alcohol tolerance.)
I don't think this is as hard as it seems. There are three key rules to observe when designing such a system:
- Each PC option has a clearly defined concept attached to it. This is one of 4E's biggest failings in my book, though it happened in 3E too--there are a lot of feats and powers that don't seem to correspond to much of anything going on in the game world. It should be clear at a glance what any given option represents.
- PC options do not stack. 4E had the right idea here with siloing, but didn't go far enough. The essence of "optimization" is finding character options--feats, powers, class features, etc.--that can be stacked on top of each other to create intense focus on a single ability: Essentials slayer + base Str 18 + base Dex 14 + half-orc + Weapon Focus + Bracers of Mighty Striking = lots of damage*. Anything that lets the player pile numbers together to make bigger numbers will, by the fact of its existence, create that wonderful tension between "make my character cool" and "make my character effective" that makes chargen such a joy. My ideal chargen system would involve zero arithmetic**. More generally, any time you allow one option to improve another (say, a feat that adds knockdown to certain attack powers), it contributes to this issue.
- Every decision should be a single, significant choice. If I want a fighting style that involves pushing enemies back and knocking them around the battlefield, that should be a single decision--not half an hour scouring the Compendium for stuff that grants push and slide effects. Essentials is a start on this but needs more.
What all of this leads to is a system that is strongly class- and archetype-based. Back in the day, I used to think class-based systems were lame; point-based, granular, super-detail-oriented was the True Way. I do not think this any more.
[size=-2]*I'm sure it's possible to do better than this.
**And I'm including in "chargen" any step required to get your character ready to do something in play. For instance, in the old White Wolf games, you make skill checks by rolling a number of dice equal to base stat + skill. Before you can do this, you have to add your base stat and your skill together. That counts. You may do it in your head on the fly rather than beforehand on your character sheet, but it creates the same dilemma during chargen: If I want to be really good at Skill X, I have to put dots in Stat Y even if it doesn't fit my concept.[/size]
