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Something that 4e's designers overlooked? -aka is KM correct?
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<blockquote data-quote="pemerton" data-source="post: 5177145" data-attributes="member: 42582"><p>Hussar, I think I follow that.</p><p></p><p>It seems like it should make a difference in at least some skill challenges (eg involving politics) that my PC is a king or not, but if we're to stick with avoiding direct combat effects, and furthermore generalise that beyond combat encounters, then that difference shouldn't be a mechanical one (ie no +2 bonuses for being a king).</p><p></p><p>What sort of difference does that leave? Story differences - and not just meaningless colour (my PC does it the kingly way, yours the yokel way) but differences in story development. So if I'm a king participating in a political skill challenge, this should affect the range of possible outcomes - both successes and failures - in a way that is different from the possiblities for a yokel participating in the same skill challenge. For example, unless I'm prepared to try a stealth check at higher difficulties or as secondary checks, it should be harder for a king to come out of the skill challenge in a way that leaves his participation in events a secret. Conversely, it should be harder (at least in the typical case) for the yokel to use intimidate against a noble. So different Aspirations wouldn't change the overall mechanical difficulty of the challenge, but would make particular approaches to the challenge easier or harder for a given PC (or perhaps open them up or close them off altogether).</p><p></p><p>Another (related) possibility is that a given Aspiration opens up or closes off particular quests - so it doesn't make it easier or harder to earn quest XP, but it does mean that particular paths to that XP are more or less easy for a given PC.</p><p></p><p>Assuming I'm thinking along the same general lines as others, one issue does occur to me: the harder it is for a player to change his/her PC's Aspirations in the course of play, the more that an early decision about Aspirations locks the player in to a particular optimal way of proceeding (certain approach to skill challenges, these quests and not those, etc). This has the potential to make the later part of the game all about exploring the consequences of decisions made in the earlier part of the game.</p><p></p><p>At least in my experience, Cthulhu one-shots can tend to play in this sort of way, and that's part of what's fun about them. I don't know if it works as well as the structure for long term play. One obvious feature of 4e is that it makes it easy to change at least some aspects of the PC in response to play - retrain feats, powers and skills, pick new quests, etc. Other important parts of the PC are locked in from the start, like race and stats. Getting the balance right between fixedness and flexibility is a tricky thing (and obviously to a large extent a matter of taste). It is an issue that comes up for Aspirations just like it comes up for other parts of character building.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="pemerton, post: 5177145, member: 42582"] Hussar, I think I follow that. It seems like it should make a difference in at least some skill challenges (eg involving politics) that my PC is a king or not, but if we're to stick with avoiding direct combat effects, and furthermore generalise that beyond combat encounters, then that difference shouldn't be a mechanical one (ie no +2 bonuses for being a king). What sort of difference does that leave? Story differences - and not just meaningless colour (my PC does it the kingly way, yours the yokel way) but differences in story development. So if I'm a king participating in a political skill challenge, this should affect the range of possible outcomes - both successes and failures - in a way that is different from the possiblities for a yokel participating in the same skill challenge. For example, unless I'm prepared to try a stealth check at higher difficulties or as secondary checks, it should be harder for a king to come out of the skill challenge in a way that leaves his participation in events a secret. Conversely, it should be harder (at least in the typical case) for the yokel to use intimidate against a noble. So different Aspirations wouldn't change the overall mechanical difficulty of the challenge, but would make particular approaches to the challenge easier or harder for a given PC (or perhaps open them up or close them off altogether). Another (related) possibility is that a given Aspiration opens up or closes off particular quests - so it doesn't make it easier or harder to earn quest XP, but it does mean that particular paths to that XP are more or less easy for a given PC. Assuming I'm thinking along the same general lines as others, one issue does occur to me: the harder it is for a player to change his/her PC's Aspirations in the course of play, the more that an early decision about Aspirations locks the player in to a particular optimal way of proceeding (certain approach to skill challenges, these quests and not those, etc). This has the potential to make the later part of the game all about exploring the consequences of decisions made in the earlier part of the game. At least in my experience, Cthulhu one-shots can tend to play in this sort of way, and that's part of what's fun about them. I don't know if it works as well as the structure for long term play. One obvious feature of 4e is that it makes it easy to change at least some aspects of the PC in response to play - retrain feats, powers and skills, pick new quests, etc. Other important parts of the PC are locked in from the start, like race and stats. Getting the balance right between fixedness and flexibility is a tricky thing (and obviously to a large extent a matter of taste). It is an issue that comes up for Aspirations just like it comes up for other parts of character building. [/QUOTE]
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