Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="thormagni" data-source="post: 4049873" data-attributes="member: 13637">For me, I really felt like I dominated the Conan game with Yuri. I became concerned that I was hogging the spotlight, because I know that I have the tendency toward that (you should see me at even staff meetings at work. I am a pain in the ass, I am sure.) So I consciously decided to dial Thorm down. No plotting. No grand schemes. No manipulating or maneuvering. I just played a none-to-smart jock with a too-high opinion of himself.As far as the inside information and tidbits that were dropped in the game we were just finishing, I have to admit that I had no idea whatsoever what was going on. I felt constantly bombarded with places and names that had no meaning to me, but that were supposed to mean something. So, in that sense I occasionally felt completely out of place.  I certainly appreciate the sense of history and place, but all of that went right over my head, for the most part.I mean, I knew I was supposed to feel, say, bad that a particular place was trashed or interested that a particular person was involved. But I had no idea who they were or what the place was like. I would strongly suggest that in a universe as vast as a sci-fi game, that all of the characters need to be given a reason to be together. They need to be designed with the idea of a common goal or a common foe or a common situation. "You are all on the run from the Alliance," or "You are all trying to overthrow the Empire" or "You are part of the crew of a deep-space mining vessel" or "You all work for a corporation trying to recover renegade androids." Or whatever.Especially compared to, say, D&D, where character classes are by default adventurers, seeking fame and fortune and slaying monsters.Well, it doesn't help when every time we tried to explore we ended up getting slaughtered in creative ways. I'm just sayin', people are unlikely to charge over the next hill or climb that wall when odds are good they will be dead moments later.I continue to maintain that a game's rule system directly contributes to the actions players take. In D&D, combat is clearly the preferred method of conflict resolution. That is where the most meat of the system is fleshed out. A game system that relies more on social skill use and less on combat crunch, is a game that will see more people do things outside of combat. My RQ "knight" stopped wearing armor because the game system made it nearly impossible to be an effective combatant and to wear armor, especially compared to the meager benefit armor gave. it wasn't a character decision, but a player decision that if I didn't want the unarmored and basically unarmed monk to defeat all the villains, I was going to have have Thorm strip to his skivvies. When you set me up with better armor, I went back to wearing armor. By the way, I think we are old fogies. It appears to me that 4e's main goal is to create even MORE video-game like experiences on the tabletop. One of the playtesters on here said that the new DMG has the best section they had ever seen on how to actually roleplay. I am skeptical, but hope that is true.</blockquote>

Verification