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Message: <blockquote data-quote="BryonD" data-source="post: 5772676" data-attributes="member: 957">The richness of the design of every individual.  This is important to me in game play.  But it is probably even more important to me in a meta sense.  To me it is all about creating an alternate universe and seeing events unfold within it.  The creation and storytelling are overwhelmingly more important than "game".   I absolutely enjoy the game as well, I don't mean to suggest otherwise.  But the story-telling and creation and art are on a separate tier.  And I say that as a guy with an active imagination who likes to tell stories and I also say that as an engineer and programmer who enjoys building and tinkering.  People complain about page long stat blocks.  But to me IF the individual merits that then it can be outstanding.  And you have to keep both the imagination and the tinker sides of this in mind when you consider that statement.  Say there is some Daemon Lord as a major foe.  Now at the end of the day the party is pretty likely to end up in a fight with him and his AC, hit points and major attacks will be important.  Let’s say he has two different weapons he wields and also has “ray of killing”.  A perfectly sound mechanical system could say that all three are +X attacks for YdZ damage.  And then a creative DM describes the details.  That is completely adequate for game resolution and cool flavor descriptions cover everything else.But what if one weapon is an axe with a threat range of 20 for X3 and the other is a sword with a threat range of 19 for X2?  That is a small tweak.  But even purely from a game point of view the threat presented by those weapons are now distinct.  Now say that the axe also throws lightning bolts and the sword is toxic to gnomes.  Again things are getting ever so slightly more complex.  But from an art point of view and from a tinker point of view they are getting more complex and more rich.  And I love the feeling that I’ve created a truly unique individual.  And I love the feeling that I’ve tinkered this piece of gaming code, if you will, that uniquely and fully describes that precise character.  Creation and tinker and game are all important.Maybe something will happen and they PCs take away the sword before the fight.  Even as they guy who created the monster, I know that the other players WILL surprise me and my creation will change and react based on those surprises.  And the effects of removing that sword are different than removing one of three +X YdZ attacks.  Maybe not so much on the art axis because you can still describe whatever you want.  But certainly on both the game axis and the tinker axis.  And maybe this guy knows more about the history of the gods than any mortal.  And maybe this guy can grant a wish to anyone who brings him a purple diamond and gets him to listen long enough to know they have a gift.  And maybe this guy can polymorph people into turtles.  And maybe this guy can always tell the exact location of the person whom whoever he touches cares most about.  That last thing could be irrelevant flavor text.  Or it could be the most scary weapon he has.  Or it could be the reason this evil creature just turned into the McGuffin of the quest.And I want a system in which I can create THAT GUY and then give it to someone else and they don’t see Daemon Lord #8 with some flavor text they MECHANICALLY see THAT GUY.  I’ve programmed him as a functional piece of this alternate universe.  And even if my gaming group falls apart and he never appears in play, I will have enjoyed making my idea turn into distinct thing the same way other people may enjoy writing a poem or painting a still life.And you can roll that back to vastly more simple things as well.  Say I’ve just got a goblin king, his henchman, a shaman and a bunch of goblin mooks.  It is fine for the mooks to all be one line.  If someone else wants to detail every one of them then awesome.  I’m glad that they are having fun.  I don’t need *that* for myself.  But I like that the king, henchman, and shaman can each be completely unique incarnations and that I can tinker with the mechanics to make my flavor be true and not just a different way of describing the same game effect.I try to climb a steep hill, a 15 foot tall chain link fence, and a 30 foot tall brick wall.  I can make informed decisions about how difficult those would be.  I haven’t a clue how to set quantified distinction between them.   As a DM I may call them DC 8, 14, and 25.  But the players and their characters know “a steep hill, a 15 foot tall chain link fence, and a 30 foot tall brick wall”.  Now they can make the same informed decision I can if I see those in the real world.“Covered in steel” is an informed decision.  ACs are out of the question.Can you name a movie or novel in which the characters consistently and reliably expect definable and balanced rewards for their risks?  I really don’t see what that has to do with an RPG *as I personally* enjoy it.</blockquote>

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