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The Door, Player Expectations, and why 5e can't unify the fanbase.
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<blockquote data-quote="Crazy Jerome" data-source="post: 5971574" data-attributes="member: 54877"><p>Well understand I'm working from a particular context here that might not be shared in the wider game. So my examples are subject to adjustment with criticism. And I'm not fully answering your question here, as stated. But I'll give it a shot ... <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f600.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":D" title="Big grin :D" data-smilie="8"data-shortname=":D" /></p><p> </p><p>Given some related asides about the future of Next by various people, I'm going to state as my context that roughly levels 1-4 are "apprentice" where characters are going to be pretty "mundane"--even casters. Errol Flynn-typic antics are possible, but not necessarily a good gamble. Swinging on that chandelier is worth trying, but not with two orcs with halberds nearby. <img src="http://www.enworld.org/forum/images/smilies/angel.png" class="smilie" loading="lazy" alt=":angel:" title="Angel :angel:" data-shortname=":angel:" /></p><p> </p><p>Around levels 5-10, characters move into the more action hero type stuff. These are things like the various stuff that Legolas does to orcs in the film LotR. I'm thinking in particular of the scene at the end of Fellowship where Boromir dies. No one is really going to shoot arrows that well and then pull out knives at the last second or stab with an arrow in transition, but it's sitting there on the "edge of plausible" close enough that most people will let it slide. The shield sliding scene is more cheezy than implausible.</p><p> </p><p>By the time Legolas is taking down elephants, he's has crossed that line. Whether he's 11th level or closing in on 20, he's a mythic character at that point. He's still vulnerable. He's still gonna die at the end if the ring doesn't end up taking a lava bath. He's nowhere near leaping 500 feet, though.</p><p> </p><p>Gimli is a tougher example, because so much of his action hero stuff is methodical. He kills orcs like he is (would be) crafting armor. His more mythic stuff is actually off-screen--going into the West with Legolas despite being a dwarf. As such, it's easy to see this as plot device instead of something meaningfully mythic about his character.</p><p> </p><p>So mechanics for this stuff is difficult in a vacuum. My contention (having played Hero System for many years where you grapple with such issues in high point Fantasy Hero games), is that you can imagine a Legolas with simply high enough skills and stats to pull off the "oilaphant" killing and claim it as non-mythic. But giving him those stats will also skew the mechanics too much in the other scenes. Those kind of mythic actions, short of something like Hercules, tend to be "spikes" in the story, not establishing an over-the-top level of mundane.</p><p> </p><p>For a completely different example, consider Corwin from the Amber series. He's highly skilled in a host of mundane circumstances, extremely knowledgable (with key blind spots), very physically gifted, a superb swordsman and general--and besides the superlatives there, his mythic abilities are pretty much limited to walking through "shadows" to other dimensions, using "trumps," and other such capabilities from his blood line. So that suggest a good "mid-mythic" example ability for an otherwise mundane fighter--plane walking at some point, with some limits.</p><p> </p><p>The tricky part about that last one is when you cross over from "superb warrior" to "warrior/mage". Corwin is a good example, I think, because he stays this side of the line, while his son Merlin is clearly and quite explicity across it. Merlin isn't as accomplished in the mundane as Corwin (though not shabby), but he creates and casts spells through the Logrus.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Crazy Jerome, post: 5971574, member: 54877"] Well understand I'm working from a particular context here that might not be shared in the wider game. So my examples are subject to adjustment with criticism. And I'm not fully answering your question here, as stated. But I'll give it a shot ... :D Given some related asides about the future of Next by various people, I'm going to state as my context that roughly levels 1-4 are "apprentice" where characters are going to be pretty "mundane"--even casters. Errol Flynn-typic antics are possible, but not necessarily a good gamble. Swinging on that chandelier is worth trying, but not with two orcs with halberds nearby. :angel: Around levels 5-10, characters move into the more action hero type stuff. These are things like the various stuff that Legolas does to orcs in the film LotR. I'm thinking in particular of the scene at the end of Fellowship where Boromir dies. No one is really going to shoot arrows that well and then pull out knives at the last second or stab with an arrow in transition, but it's sitting there on the "edge of plausible" close enough that most people will let it slide. The shield sliding scene is more cheezy than implausible. By the time Legolas is taking down elephants, he's has crossed that line. Whether he's 11th level or closing in on 20, he's a mythic character at that point. He's still vulnerable. He's still gonna die at the end if the ring doesn't end up taking a lava bath. He's nowhere near leaping 500 feet, though. Gimli is a tougher example, because so much of his action hero stuff is methodical. He kills orcs like he is (would be) crafting armor. His more mythic stuff is actually off-screen--going into the West with Legolas despite being a dwarf. As such, it's easy to see this as plot device instead of something meaningfully mythic about his character. So mechanics for this stuff is difficult in a vacuum. My contention (having played Hero System for many years where you grapple with such issues in high point Fantasy Hero games), is that you can imagine a Legolas with simply high enough skills and stats to pull off the "oilaphant" killing and claim it as non-mythic. But giving him those stats will also skew the mechanics too much in the other scenes. Those kind of mythic actions, short of something like Hercules, tend to be "spikes" in the story, not establishing an over-the-top level of mundane. For a completely different example, consider Corwin from the Amber series. He's highly skilled in a host of mundane circumstances, extremely knowledgable (with key blind spots), very physically gifted, a superb swordsman and general--and besides the superlatives there, his mythic abilities are pretty much limited to walking through "shadows" to other dimensions, using "trumps," and other such capabilities from his blood line. So that suggest a good "mid-mythic" example ability for an otherwise mundane fighter--plane walking at some point, with some limits. The tricky part about that last one is when you cross over from "superb warrior" to "warrior/mage". Corwin is a good example, I think, because he stays this side of the line, while his son Merlin is clearly and quite explicity across it. Merlin isn't as accomplished in the mundane as Corwin (though not shabby), but he creates and casts spells through the Logrus. [/QUOTE]
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