Should PCs Be Exceptional?

[cranberry]

IMO, except for an ability score or two, PCs should be typical.

 

[TwoSix]

This is why I prefer a nice binary.

Anyway, what do folks think is the more important lesson to impart?

1. Some people are just born special.
2. With effort, you can make yourself into whatever you want.

Obviously the first. The second is a pernicious myth that contributes to “hustle culture” and other societal ills.

 

[Committed Hero]

Here are some generalities:

In horror games, and especially one-shots, where the PCs are often in the wrong place at the wrong time, I would not expect them to be exceptional.

In a superhero game where protecting one's identity is an important facet of play, I would expect their secret identities to be unexceptional. Along with modern media, this seems to have become less important over time.

In most other instances - and especially in a longer campaign - I would expect the PCs to be exceptional simply because the story revolves around them. The inhabitants of most fantasy campaigns do not wander the land doing great deeds, or even accumulate experience points at the rate that PCs do.

 

[Li Shenron]

I very much prefer "self-made" heroes. I accept that there is some starting advantages in ability scores but IMO 5e already goes too far with that.

 

[Staffan]

An alternative way to ask this question is to ask when a PC should be considered exceptional.

- At the time of character creation. PCs are inherently special. (e.g. most PbtA, most superhero games)

- Not at the very beginning (Level 1), but reasonably quickly after they've been around the block a couple of times (Level 7ish). (e.g. D&D 5E).

- Not until they've done some serious growth and powered up a lot (Level 15ish). (e.g. D&D 3E, most WEG d6 games)

I mean, I generally prefer my PCs to be experienced people at the start of a campaign, though usually thrust into a new situation. Think Leverage, Star Trek (at least TOS, TNG, DS9, VOY, ENT, Discovery), Babylon 5, Dark Matter, Farscape, the Expanse, the non-hobbit half of the Fellowship in Lord of the Rings, and so on. I'm perfectly fine with starting on the "Hero" side of the "Zero to Hero" scale.

Heck, even for the most commonly mentioned Zero-to-hero example (Star Wars), that only applies to one of the three main characters. Sure, Luke's a complete n00b, but Han Solo is a highly experienced pilot with a fairly long smuggling career, and Leia might be young but she's an experienced rebel operative as well as an imperial senator, presumably with access to the best trainers money can buy.

 

[Corinnguard]

Before Destiny came around and made your character willingly or unwillingly become an adventurer, your character would probably see themselves as being like everyone else in their hometown, tribe or city. They would not see themselves being exceptional compared to those around them. Someone else in their hometown would be the exceptional one.

They would later become exceptional once they embraced their Destiny. Whatever that might be. Your character would then find themselves creating a reputation that the bards would spread far and wide.

 

[MGibster]

I mean, they son’t HAVE to be exceptional, but I’ve never met a person IRL who didn’t want to play as someone special.

I want to roleplay something different from my normal experience. That's why I like to play average Joes.

 

[TaranTheWanderer]

If I run a game, most NPCs in a village have 8-10 in every stat except for the stat(s) that is related to their main profession. They’d have anywhere between a 13 and 16 in that stat (depending on their status and reputation).

So just by stats, standard array makes PCs exceptional

Most villages have guards that are like, 1/4cr or CR1 or bigger cities have “soldier” or whatever they’re called CR 3. So when PCs become high enough level that a platoon of those NPCs can’t deal with an issue, they become exceptional.

 

[Theory of Games]

Both at once.

And it's done by having randomly-generated stats - those who are "born special" have higher stats across the board than the average and quite possibly higher stats then their PC peers.

And then the "make something out of it" piece comes in. You can have the highest stats you want but if you die in your second combat then they didn't matter much, did they? Meanwhile, the underdog PC who started with very bland stats might just keep chuggin' along and make himself into something quite special indeed.

Yeah but IME the PCs with higher stats end up protecting your lil underdog. Higher stats > lower stats

The old classic. High stats lead to overconfidence, lead to death.

... or victory. And there's a better shot at victory with better stats. Statistically-speaking

 

[Micah Sweet]

With regards to "what's considered exceptional..." IMO most editions' DnD characters are, to varying degrees, exceptional. They advance in power quickly, they outperform their contemporaries, and in dnd5e they punch way above their weight class.

SHOULD they be exceptional? Tough call. Depends on the game ofc, but I feel like they have to be a little above average at least to give the PCs a fighting chance... above table, the PCs only experience the world maybe 1/week, so they could use the benefit of the doubt. I think even Call of Cthulhu characters are a little exceptional in one way or another, in that they're a little more capable than Average Joe.

In a high fantasy game like DnD yeah, they should be. HOW exceptional is up for debate, ofc.
In a Sword & Sorcery game, well Fafhrd and the Grey Mouser were certainly best in their class- as was Conan.

Of course, my problem is that D&D when I started playing it was more sword & sorcery and less high fantasy, and I still prefer to play my D&D-like games that way, so the whole "D&D is high fantasy" thing has never sit right with me.