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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Scurvy_Platypus" data-source="post: 3963384" data-attributes="member: 43283">It _really_ depends on the game you're playing. Since this place is all about D&D/d20...I think the majority of the time, yes. While there will be people to pop up and vehemently deny it and point to themselves as not falling into that group, most of what I see online talk about is focused on that. The character (in combat) is more of an extension of the player, as opposed to decisions/actions being taken based on the character.In terms of personal experience with the different groups I've been in over the years, it varies a bit more. I'd still say that it tends to favor more "player" than "character", but there's a lot more "character" decisions happening.That's at least in part based on playstyle, and group selection. I've moved around a lot in my life, and I'm careful about the groups that I "settle in" with. If they don't have a style similar to mine, then I usually leave politely and find people that are more similar to myself.Some people either don't have that option, or aren't inclined to do so.I don't think my experience is somehow "true" or the default that everyone else has experienced, it's just what I've seen.And having said that, I'll point to myself as an example of someone that does make suboptimal choices in character build as well as combat situations, explicitly based on whether it makes sense for the character.I'll explicitly point out to a player if there's a target that's more juicy from the character's perspective, I'll point out how some NPC or critter crossed/wronged/pissed off the character, I'll even give 'em a bit of a bonus to attack the thing in question.Last game (it was in the middle of a combat), I told one of the players,"Oh man! That soldier just totally smoked your pet Tree Devil. It's lying there in a heap, with smoke curlying up from the blaze pistol hole in its chest, and you can smell the slightly cooked meat smell. So you're standing there behind these two guys as they blow away your Tree Devil, and you've got both your pistols drawn and pointed at their heads. What are you doing?"The player seemed a bit torn (since he's playing a member of the City Watch), so I asked, "Hey, don't you have that Bloodthirsty weakness?"The player nodded and said, "Yup. I pull the trigger. On both of 'em."I said, "Now before you do that, you do know that there's a penalty for doing a double attack like that, right? You can do it, and I'll make it a bit easier since your character's pissed, but there's still going to be some penalties. If you want, you can just do it on the guy that actually managed to kill your pet. It'd be a left handed shot, but that wouldn't be a penalty at all and I'd even give you a bit of a bonus."And he said, "Nah. They both shot at him, I'm going to try and put 'em down."He did miss the the one guy, but hit on the left guy (who'd shot his pet) and got some impressive damage. I gave the player a nice and bloody description of the mook's death, and the player seemed happy.I'll note that if the GM explicitly goes out of their way to point things out, and even gives a bit of a bonus for things like character based decisions, rather than tactical decisions, _many_ times the players pick up on it really fast, and start making decisions that way.The thing is, most of the time a player/character is penalized for going with the character's impulses, rather than the game's combat resolution/tactical expectations. If you can show how not only will a character/player _not_ be screwed by going with the character's impluses, but they'll actually get a bit of a bonus for it, they'll be _much_ more likely to go that way. Even if it does make the metagame side of the combat a bit more difficult for the group, the player(s) will be more satisified with how it goes. Because they can always say, "Yeah, we did get beat up worse, but wasn't it cool when I [blah blah blah]?!?"Again, just my experience and I don't claim that my approach will work for everyone.</blockquote>

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