MichaelSomething
Legend
I though the reason WOTC added BIFTs was that people were complaining that 4E was just a combat war game with no role playing in it?
Nah, those people hated them for being “director’s stance” mechanics, and begrudgingly accepted them because they’re easy enough to ignore.I though the reason WOTC added BIFTs was that people were complaining that 4E was just a combat war game with no role playing in it?
Maze Rats is a great example of how to start off a PC with some keywords for their physical appearance, clothing, personality, and background. It takes 5 minutes and works as a jumping off point rather than anything determinative. Alternatively, I would ask my players to fill out the following
- Physical appearance: 2 adjectives + signature item of clothing
- Personality: 3 adjectives
- Backstory: 2-3 bullet points, <100 words
- What does your character want?
- What does your character not want?
But if the GM starts saying things like "You did a great job talking about your sad past with the barmaid just now--take inspiration," that starts to worry me. And if the GM hands out advantage for cracking jokes or otherwise entertaining the table, that definitely tastes like approval-cookie. I'm sure those are effective tools for some players, but they just set off all my alarm bells.
Right. For the most, bifts are fun to look through, and help me clarify early on who the character is. Sometimes a flaw will clarify in my mind based on a negative reaction I have upon reading one of the listed flaws for a given background, or a Bond will based on an Ideal, etc.Nah, those people hated them for being “director’s stance” mechanics, and begrudgingly accepted them because they’re easy enough to ignore.
Now you're getting fiddly for no benefit. Some people are especially tall, some especially short, some about average. Shelves have heights that depend on pretty intuitive understanding of how rooms work and who uses the room. If it's built for Goliaths, the top shelf may well be 10 ft in the air. If it's built for humans, probably not in a normal room.
simulationism is irrelevant to the discussion. Reality is only useful as the basis for how we picture things in our head, and even then shared perception and expectation trumps it. Tall people have longer reach, short people have an easier time hiding, isn't some wildly detailed deep dive into simulationist representation of real life geometry.
Not until 6th. Before that they were things that help define character (psych lims, social lims) that never had to be rolled n play, or things the GM used to set up and frame things (Hunteds ext).
One of the reasons I stuck with 5th Hero is the change to disads that were in 6th.
I think there may be some talking-past-each other going on here. In real life, the difference made by a foot of height is not tiny by any reasonable definition of the word. It has a very significant impact on a wide range of physical activities, as well as having an oft-underestimated social impact. When it comes to whether these differences should be modeled in gameplay, however, isn’t about how much difference it makes, but of whether that’s the kind of difference you want to model mechanically. Personally, I would think of character height as a matter of personal expression, and therefore not something that players should have to consider mechanical benefits and drawbacks when deciding on. But, I can imagine someone with different priorities wanting to make sure that such differences are acknowledged on a system level.
I love this ideal! It's amazing how many players choose it for their character."Respect. People deserve to be treated with dignity and respect. (Good)" is good info to have if that's actually useful for the player as a guide to playing their character. But it doesn't give me as a DM much to work with. I can dangle people being treated disrespectfully or their dignity being violated, but that doesn't mean the player will do anything about it.