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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Remathilis" data-source="post: 3851453" data-attributes="member: 7635">I think a lot of it also comes down to two different world views of what a Player Character is: Avatar or Personality. (both terms are artificial, definitions below).Avatars (like those in 2nd life) are just stand ins for the PCs. They may look or act like a dwarf or a wizard, but they are just pawns for what that specific player would do if he were an dwarf or a wizard. This is a very gamist approach: PCs (as avatars) don't have any function beyond representing the PC so they can be very disposable (sometimes literally replaced with a slightly renamed version of the same avatar). This game also tends to favor a high amount of puzzle solving and clue-gathering that rewards astute PLAYERS, not their avatars.Personalities, on the other hand, are living breathing characters. They have unique goals, thoughts, and motivations that (aside from player as author) would differ from "what I'd do if I was in that situation". They can be brave or craven, good or evil. Often, they write themselves as living, breathing characters. The world is much more simulationist: storyline, character development, and interaction rule the day. Death is truly monumental (since that is the end of the unique personality) and often many layers of house rules stand before him and Final Death. This is not binary, its a slide scale. Most D&D (and even default D&D) shoots for something in between an avatar and a personality. However, each group (and each player) leans more to one side or the other. Without polling, I'm sure you can figure out which side you lean closer to (and I'm not quite sure what a "true neutral" would look like, so lets ignore it for now). However,  D&D's default set of beliefs work on the same slide-scale. Basic, OD&D, and 1e all leaned on the "PC as Avatar" model and created some truly amazing gaming (the ultimate Avatar module: Tomb of Horrors). 2nd edition (despite its rule-flaws) leaned heavier on Personalities and ushered in the era of great characters like Drizzt, Strahd, Soth, etc. 3rd tried to tow both lines and kinda failed at each. 4e seems to shift again to Personalities with a greater emphasis on longer stories (30 levels, no more 15 min workday) and character survival (more hp, scaling AC, no SoD). This, I think, is why lots of DMs (who continue to echo the 1e avatar ethic) are dismayed by the emphasis on PC survival and Personalities-styled DMs are overjoyed by it.Pretty much, its different game styles, but the shift in the rules is causing a major paragon shift beyond rolling your own save or changes to devils. Its changing how the role of the PC in the world.</blockquote>

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