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General Tabletop Discussion
*TTRPGs General
Should PCs be forced to act a certain way because of their stats?
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<blockquote data-quote="Hussar" data-source="post: 5754264" data-attributes="member: 22779"><p>Yes, but Bill91, those are two different characters. No one would mistake Cliff Clavin for Dr. Who.</p><p></p><p>But, I was told repeatedly that I could play Cliff Clavin and succeed just as well as The Doctor because stats don't matter. That if I make a good speech as a player, my character should get the same results, regardless of his actual stats.</p><p></p><p>Yet, here we're seeing that the stats actually do result in two very different characters. Cliff Clavin doesn't get the pass, regardless of how well his player speaks. He's still "incompetent bluster".</p><p></p><p>In The Shaman's example, his cowardly marshal is played in a certain way. Over time, he overcomes the disadvantage <u>and his stats change to reflect that</u>. Again, stats matter.</p><p></p><p>Using The Shaman's other example, Hubert is not a natural ninja. But, again, over time, he manages to accrue enough skills to become a passable ninja. He's not a great ninja, but, he's still a better ninja than any non-ninja. Again, because his stats matter. His stats inform every aspect of that character - from being a failure to eventually overcoming his inherent challenges.</p><p></p><p>Again, stats matter. Stats inform play. They certainly don't dictate play and no one has ever claimed that they do. But, the portrayal of any character needs to account for the stats of that character. The entire task resolution system is predicated on that notion. A low stat character will fail more often than a high stat one. However, a low stat character can, through dint of effort, overcome that low stat in order to succeed reasonably often.</p><p></p><p>However, if you ignore the task resolution systems and simply give the player the pass because of his personal performance, you've sailed off into freeform land. Which is fine if that's what you want. But, it's not the base presumptions of the system that you're playing. ((Presuming of course, that you're not <u>actually</u> playing a freeform system. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f600.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":D" title="Big grin :D" data-smilie="8"data-shortname=":D" /> ))</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Hussar, post: 5754264, member: 22779"] Yes, but Bill91, those are two different characters. No one would mistake Cliff Clavin for Dr. Who. But, I was told repeatedly that I could play Cliff Clavin and succeed just as well as The Doctor because stats don't matter. That if I make a good speech as a player, my character should get the same results, regardless of his actual stats. Yet, here we're seeing that the stats actually do result in two very different characters. Cliff Clavin doesn't get the pass, regardless of how well his player speaks. He's still "incompetent bluster". In The Shaman's example, his cowardly marshal is played in a certain way. Over time, he overcomes the disadvantage [u]and his stats change to reflect that[/u]. Again, stats matter. Using The Shaman's other example, Hubert is not a natural ninja. But, again, over time, he manages to accrue enough skills to become a passable ninja. He's not a great ninja, but, he's still a better ninja than any non-ninja. Again, because his stats matter. His stats inform every aspect of that character - from being a failure to eventually overcoming his inherent challenges. Again, stats matter. Stats inform play. They certainly don't dictate play and no one has ever claimed that they do. But, the portrayal of any character needs to account for the stats of that character. The entire task resolution system is predicated on that notion. A low stat character will fail more often than a high stat one. However, a low stat character can, through dint of effort, overcome that low stat in order to succeed reasonably often. However, if you ignore the task resolution systems and simply give the player the pass because of his personal performance, you've sailed off into freeform land. Which is fine if that's what you want. But, it's not the base presumptions of the system that you're playing. ((Presuming of course, that you're not [u]actually[/u] playing a freeform system. :D )) [/QUOTE]
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Should PCs be forced to act a certain way because of their stats?
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