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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="Janx" data-source="post: 5754453" data-attributes="member: 8835"><p>While I hate stupid or joke characters, I don't think it's in my domain as GM or PC to do anything about it. At most, it MIGHT violate my "make a PC the party would hire" rule because as an adventurer he's useless.</p><p></p><p>While I don't encourage the making of incompetent PCs, it's possible. That's what the Dumb Doctor represents to me. In your original example, he's not actually useless, he's acting uselessly (by ignoring his strengths and insisting his weaknesses aren't.</p><p></p><p>The dumb doctor is stumbling because he's got bad stats on the rules he's trying to use (skill checks).</p><p></p><p>In the case of the 3 INT barbarian with no skills but awesome combat tactics, there's no rules making it a problem. So I don't have a problem because I interpret the stat to what the rules model, not what the fluff says.</p><p></p><p>Considering I also don't get "this is what my PC is like" from all players, I don't have a baseline to compare to.</p><p></p><p>So somebody saying "I'm CN" but acting "LG" would obviously make me go "huh?"</p><p></p><p>But another player may not even announce that their PC is like the Doctor. How can I say Cliff is acting out of character when I don't know the player is acting like the Doctor and has bad stats?</p><p></p><p>Now you might ask, how I could have PCs in my game that I don't know this stuff?</p><p></p><p>1) I trust my players not to cheat</p><p>2) I'm lazy and assume their PC makes sense</p><p>3) they followed the limits on source material</p><p>4) they followed the house rules on PC behavior (make a PC the party would hire)</p><p></p><p>As such, I might not have been told "my PC is just like the Doctor and he like never fights and stuff!"</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Janx, post: 5754453, member: 8835"] While I hate stupid or joke characters, I don't think it's in my domain as GM or PC to do anything about it. At most, it MIGHT violate my "make a PC the party would hire" rule because as an adventurer he's useless. While I don't encourage the making of incompetent PCs, it's possible. That's what the Dumb Doctor represents to me. In your original example, he's not actually useless, he's acting uselessly (by ignoring his strengths and insisting his weaknesses aren't. The dumb doctor is stumbling because he's got bad stats on the rules he's trying to use (skill checks). In the case of the 3 INT barbarian with no skills but awesome combat tactics, there's no rules making it a problem. So I don't have a problem because I interpret the stat to what the rules model, not what the fluff says. Considering I also don't get "this is what my PC is like" from all players, I don't have a baseline to compare to. So somebody saying "I'm CN" but acting "LG" would obviously make me go "huh?" But another player may not even announce that their PC is like the Doctor. How can I say Cliff is acting out of character when I don't know the player is acting like the Doctor and has bad stats? Now you might ask, how I could have PCs in my game that I don't know this stuff? 1) I trust my players not to cheat 2) I'm lazy and assume their PC makes sense 3) they followed the limits on source material 4) they followed the house rules on PC behavior (make a PC the party would hire) As such, I might not have been told "my PC is just like the Doctor and he like never fights and stuff!" [/QUOTE]
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Should PCs be forced to act a certain way because of their stats?
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