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<blockquote data-quote="pemerton" data-source="post: 6571634" data-attributes="member: 42582">Game design is not, in my view, a place to make clever distinctions based on actions vs omissions.Designing a game such that PCs and NPCs are mechanically indistinguishable is one sort of choice. Designing a game such that they are not - eg because the came recognises the special literary function of protagonists - is a different choice.No choice is more &quot;default&quot; or &quot;neutral&quot; than the other: there's nothing &quot;neutral&quot; about designing a game which is indifferent to whether or not an element of the game is a player's playing piece! It's a deliberate choice.D&amp;D started out being neutral (all stats were rolled 3d6), in 1st ed AD&amp;d was non-neutral (there were different rules for generating NPC and PC stats), returned to neutrality in the 2nd ed AD&amp;D and 3E eras (though not fully neutral in 3E, because all PCs are &quot;elite&quot; or some similar notion for points-buy purposes), and then returned to the 1st ed AD&amp;D orientation in 4e.This.An alternative explanation is that no one has turned their mind to it - which is probably the case when OD&amp;D was written. But no RPG designer today could fail to be aware of the issue!</blockquote>

[QUOTE="pemerton, post: 6571634, member: 42582"] Game design is not, in my view, a place to make clever distinctions based on actions vs omissions. Designing a game such that PCs and NPCs are mechanically indistinguishable is one sort of choice. Designing a game such that they are not - eg because the came recognises the special literary function of protagonists - is a different choice. No choice is more "default" or "neutral" than the other: there's nothing "neutral" about designing a game which is indifferent to whether or not an element of the game is a player's playing piece! It's a deliberate choice. D&D started out being neutral (all stats were rolled 3d6), in 1st ed AD&d was non-neutral (there were different rules for generating NPC and PC stats), returned to neutrality in the 2nd ed AD&D and 3E eras (though not fully neutral in 3E, because all PCs are "elite" or some similar notion for points-buy purposes), and then returned to the 1st ed AD&D orientation in 4e. This. An alternative explanation is that no one has turned their mind to it - which is probably the case when OD&D was written. But no RPG designer today could fail to be aware of the issue! [/QUOTE]

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