Should PCs Be Exceptional?

[Reynard]

Sure.

Though I'd argue there are a lot of settings besides superhero-proper ones where there are distinct layers of power to be found.

The Knights of the Round Table in the romances were anime heroes, powers wise. Lots of crazy stuff happening there in a genre that is usually easily connected to D&D.

 

[Distracted DM]

The Knights of the Round Table in the romances were anime heroes, powers wise. Lots of crazy stuff happening there in a genre that is usually easily connected to D&D.

Yeah, I really wouldn't use the Knights of the Round as an example of bog-standard knights. That's like using the knights from the Song of Roland as bog-standard knights.
They perform feats that others couldn't- that's why they're the big important knights!

 

[Reynard]

Yeah, I really wouldn't use the Knights of the Round as an example of bog-standard knights. That's like using the knights from the Song of Roland as bog-standard knights.
They perform feats that others couldn't- that's why they're the big important knights!

I was using them as an example of a non-superhero setting where there are tiers of power as real things in the world of the fiction.

 

[Ralif Redhammer]

Sure.

Though I'd argue there are a lot of settings besides superhero-proper ones where there are distinct layers of power to be found.

Oh, absolutely. Just look at Vampire the Masquerade. You have layers between the mortal and vampiric worlds. But part of why it worked was the Masquerade. Vampires are on a whole different power level from mortals. But they are still bound by the need for secrecy. Not to mention the Machiavellian power struggles and dynamics of the vampires.

 

[Thomas Shey]

The Knights of the Round Table in the romances were anime heroes, powers wise. Lots of crazy stuff happening there in a genre that is usually easily connected to D&D.

As I recall, there were incarnations of the Round Table where each knight seemed to have an individual superpower either by themselves or as the consequence of some item of power.

 

[Micah Sweet]

Not so. A number of people don't, but they're not the main cast. Commissioner Gordon, Lois Lane, and Aunt Mae, for example. Main characters generally do.

Superhero games tend to hit narrative conventions pretty heavily. That's why they're an exception to my usual preferences.

 

[Minigiant]

I don't think Genre matters.

To me it's time.

A non-exceptional can't deal with the abnormal, supernatural, and exceptional constantly for long.

There's no genre that supports Normal Joe Schmoe dealing with weird stuff for long without an in world explanation.

 

[Hriston]

It depends entirely on the game being played at that particular table at that particular time.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

I disagree completely. "Personness" is totally unrelated to mechanics.

It seems you’re stuck on wording rather than the argument.

but that aside, I completely reject the notion that a character can be an elf if they don’t have common mechanical traits with most elves. Same any other example.

“Elf” has a mechanical meaning in the game, therefor those mechanics represent what an elf is.

Divorcing those things makes PCs “exceptional” is a way that is very negative. It makes them a different type of being from beings that supposedly share a species.

 

[Reynard]

It seems you’re stuck on wording rather than the argument.

but that aside, I completely reject the notion that a character can be an elf if they don’t have common mechanical traits with most elves. Same any other example.

“Elf” has a mechanical meaning in the game, therefor those mechanics represent what an elf is.

Divorcing those things makes PCs “exceptional” is a way that is very negative. It makes them a different type of being from beings that supposedly share a species.

And you are interpreting "exceptional" as "completely different" which makes no sense.

Exceptional means above the average, a difference of scale, not kind.

I honestly don't know what your argument is, given that.