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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Barastrondo" data-source="post: 4955312" data-attributes="member: 3820">I think that's only part of the story. Another part is the idea that character concept isn't really universally perceived as a curve that begins with scrappy underdog and might or might not eventually become a potent hero. Sometimes a concept is more akin to 5th or 10th or 15th or higher. If you've ever seen someone say "I don't want to play six months to eventually get the character I have in my head, I want to start the game playing the character I have in my head right now," you've seen that difference in perspective. Consider the difference between magic item as reward, and magic item as part of character concept. To really understand the difference, you have to utterly divorce the two. Someone who has a magic item as part of a character concept is not trying to game the system to get rewards without "earning them" — the magic item just isn't a reward in the first place. It's considered part of the concept, as much as being 3rd level might be part of a character concept for a game that begins at 3rd level. While starting play with a magic item or being guaranteed a particular item in the near future may be antithetical to the concept of magic as rewards, it isn't even close if the game in question doesn't limited magic items to the campaign role of rewards.I think saying that video games and the like have conditioned people toward "instant gratification" misses the point, a bit. The most competitive bit of quick gratification that video games have over tabletop RPGs is the ability to start playing more quickly: to be having fun within 5 minutes of getting your game home. Beyond that, "instant gratification" may mean you get nice loot within minutes or an hour of playing — but it may also mean that you're playing someone as brutally skilled as Kratos, as nimble as the Prince of Persia, or with as kickass a weapon as Soul Calibur right from the start. And even borrowing from literature, some people might want to play someone so strong he was strangling serpents while he was still in his crib. Or to start play as Colossus without having to work your way up from Fabulous Frog-Man. Is the ability to start with a stronger character concept something D&D has borrowed from other sources? Yeah, probably; but in a way, I think that's just D&D trying to expand its paradigm. "Start at first level" wasn't really ever the dominant story model in fantasy literature or myth. It was certainly present, but only in D&D is it prevalent enough that you see people noting that it might be unusual to start strong in the first place.</blockquote>

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