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="Oryzarius" data-source="post: 9558606" data-attributes="member: 61736">To me, part of this discussion speaks to the weakness (note that I did not say "inadequacy"!) of D&D as a role-playing system.In a game with a more nuanced character-creation system (like, say, GURPS, Hero, Savage Worlds, FATE, etc.), a player can take "disadvantages" or "flaws" or "troubles" in return for more resources to spend on "positive" abilities.  If I design a character with the Lecherousness disadvantage, then that's pretty much an invitation to the GM that I'm willing for my character to both seduce and be seduced.  If the character was created with an Addiction, then it's going to be harder to say "No" when an NPC interrupts plans with a suggestion for an appropriate party.  True, D&D in recent editions certainly comes with a nod to "Ideals" and "Bonds" and "Flaws", but they're fairly vestigial in both attention and effect.Players respond to incentives.  If you've paid for some of your abilities by accepting a vulnerability, then it's not really a violation of player agency to have that vulnerability "called in" during play.  (Obviously, if it starts happening in every encounter of every session, then it's gone too far.). If you know you'll lose experience points for not playing to your disadvantages, you're likely to more readily accept dramatic action that invokes them.  And, if you really, really don't want to cede any character control, then simply don't take any disadvantages... but be aware that players who do take on such narrative "hooks" will be rewarded for offering more such opportunities for dramatic texture.Yes, players shouldn't be "triggered" by unwanted or inappropriate intrusions on their character control.  But there's a vast middle ground between a complete loss of player agency and a complete lack of challenges to it.</blockquote>

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