Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.
Enchanted Trinkets Complete--a hardcover book containing over 500 magic items for your D&D games!

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Jack7" data-source="post: 4641394" data-attributes="member: 54707">I think CF, that this is exactly what Reynard meant, by saying this: and this:That recent editions of the game, 4E being the most recent, have moved more or less steadily away from the idea of strategic character development in relation to the larger world. He's lamenting the loss. It doesn't mean it has to remain this way, just that it has thus far. That recent versions of the game, 3E and 4E for instance, are less strategically and socially conscious than earlier versions and that more emphasis has been placed on personal power development than other forms of power development. Like social, political, leadership functions, and so forth. That  his real point with the post was not so much changing game, per se - as a mechanical idea of game, as it was actually there is now less character change in relation to game progression as that played out in the milieu. It was a sort of poetic play on terms.I don't wanna put words in his mouth though so I'll like him answer it, but it strikes me this was his real intent in posting this.But as for me, I've been working on this very issue for the Great Conjunction contest. I've been working on the idea of, as characters progress in level, of there being corresponding and obvious social, political, and leadership opportunities that come with an advance in status of capability, heroism, and reputation. That is directly binding level progression with at least opportunities for power assumption and use outside of "class power." How does that strike you as a potential solution to the problem Reynard?I think one of the real problems with this whole issue is class. When the game says class, it doesn't really mean class at all (warrior, knight, nobility, Duke, King, peasant, merchant, priest), it means something far more limited and more situationally-precise, it means profession, or as the old term used to be, vocation. But the original versions of the game more or less implied the larger social and cultural context of "real-class" as it also related to profession. (That the idea of larger duties were at least mechanically implied in earlier game versions.) That is as one became professionally heroic and developed personally one also developed and should take on social duties, not just personal and party duties.But over time it has become more or less all about the individual and his "class," and far less about larger responsibilities. And it's hard to be really heroic when all you're doing is tending your own field.</blockquote>

Verification