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<blockquote data-quote="DEFCON 1" data-source="post: 7372356" data-attributes="member: 7006">What are the niches?&nbsp; They are ALL based upon the story of the game.&nbsp; None of it is based upon the actual math and game mechanics.&nbsp; Even the ability scores are all purely story and fluff.&nbsp; Right now we have Ability 1, Ability 2, Ability 3, 4, 5 &amp; 6.&nbsp; In every single case... the game mechanics are exactly the same.&nbsp; The DM chooses a number (like 10, 15, 20 etc.), a player rolls a die, and adds the number that is associated with Ability 1, Ability 2, or Ability 3 etc. and tries to get higher than the number the DM chose.&nbsp; It's only through the STORY that we all at the table agree and accept that Ability 2 is going to be consider &quot;Dexterity&quot;, and that its because of the story the DM is telling that the reason we are using Ability 2 is because the fluff of &quot;Dexterity&quot; is what applies to try and affect the story.The way we keep characters from being homogenous is by just saying each character will focus on different parts of the story, their &quot;niche&quot; and thus certain numbers they use get to be higher and more likely to occur in those situations where their math comes up.&nbsp; But the math itself has little to do with it.&nbsp; This &quot;niche&quot; over here gets to add an extra 1d4 to a roll because reasons (for example, because they &quot;cast a spell&quot; [story] that was &quot;granted to them by their deity&quot; [story] that &quot;blesses his allies&quot; [story] to make them &quot;more effective in combat&quot; [story].)&nbsp; Whereas that &quot;niche&quot; over there gets to add an extra 1d6 to a roll because reasons (they &quot;inspired&quot; [story] their allies with &quot;brave talk&quot; [story] which allows those allies to &quot;accomplish a task they have to do&quot; more easily [story].)And its the same exact thing with stuff like granting extra damage on attack rolls.&nbsp; The actual mechanics are nothing but numbers.&nbsp; Numbers that without the story layered upon them have no real differences-- it's roll a 20-sided die (or an 8-sided die, or 4-sided die), add a few numbers to it chosen for reasons, and try and beat a number the DM arbitrarily chooses.&nbsp; And because these actual mechanics can be rather boring, we give them PURPOSE by layering a story on top of them.&nbsp; And the story is why D&amp;D is what it is, rather than just a random series of dice actions like craps or Yahtzee.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="DEFCON 1, post: 7372356, member: 7006"] What are the niches? They are ALL based upon the story of the game. None of it is based upon the actual math and game mechanics. Even the ability scores are all purely story and fluff. Right now we have Ability 1, Ability 2, Ability 3, 4, 5 & 6. In every single case... the game mechanics are exactly the same. The DM chooses a number (like 10, 15, 20 etc.), a player rolls a die, and adds the number that is associated with Ability 1, Ability 2, or Ability 3 etc. and tries to get higher than the number the DM chose. It's only through the STORY that we all at the table agree and accept that Ability 2 is going to be consider "Dexterity", and that its because of the story the DM is telling that the reason we are using Ability 2 is because the fluff of "Dexterity" is what applies to try and affect the story. The way we keep characters from being homogenous is by just saying each character will focus on different parts of the story, their "niche" and thus certain numbers they use get to be higher and more likely to occur in those situations where their math comes up. But the math itself has little to do with it. This "niche" over here gets to add an extra 1d4 to a roll because reasons (for example, because they "cast a spell" [story] that was "granted to them by their deity" [story] that "blesses his allies" [story] to make them "more effective in combat" [story].) Whereas that "niche" over there gets to add an extra 1d6 to a roll because reasons (they "inspired" [story] their allies with "brave talk" [story] which allows those allies to "accomplish a task they have to do" more easily [story].) And its the same exact thing with stuff like granting extra damage on attack rolls. The actual mechanics are nothing but numbers. Numbers that without the story layered upon them have no real differences-- it's roll a 20-sided die (or an 8-sided die, or 4-sided die), add a few numbers to it chosen for reasons, and try and beat a number the DM arbitrarily chooses. And because these actual mechanics can be rather boring, we give them PURPOSE by layering a story on top of them. And the story is why D&D is what it is, rather than just a random series of dice actions like craps or Yahtzee. [/QUOTE]

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