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<blockquote data-quote="5ekyu" data-source="post: 7599016" data-attributes="member: 6919838">Well said. I agree with your focus. Part of me thinks there might be generational divides that can exacerbate this - as someone who has a gaming lifespan that started in the 90s or at 3.x etc might not have gone thru the &quot;glory days&quot; seeing the rise and fall of all sorts of different approaches.&quot;Do you think that the PC is a separate entity, capable of solving problems with an independent base of knowledge?Or do you think the PC is vessel for your play (the player)?&quot;While I dont see these as mutually exclusive and see them as two ends on a spectrum I fall for DnD 5e games closer to the &quot;entity&quot; side, where the &quot;your play&quot; is key for the bigger picture stuff but the &quot;separate entity is key for the more granular task level stuff.Take a fight - &quot;your play&quot; makes a world of difference - decisions on who to attack now, to attack or to cover, to heal or hurt, to fog cloud or serp, etc etc make eworld of difference and can swing the battle results in many ways. They can even shift the odds of the attacks, thru help or such.But the resolution of each task often comes down to the &quot;separate entity&quot; and their stats or specs.Or say we have a different challenge, a town beset by demonic plagues, needing cures we dont have. Again, &quot;your play&quot; can be huge - do you call in allies and if do which ones, do you send some folks to get cures from a nearby harbor instead, do you ho hunting the plague source yo get the cure from them etc etc etc. &quot;Your play&quot; is key to the overall effort, the strategic levels of the solution, but then at each of these actual efforts that will be where the &quot;separate entity&quot; and their capabilities matter. Did you send the big surly barbarian to try and talk the allies into coming to help? Did you send the charming thief to the harbor to try and &quot;acquire&quot; cures? The &quot;who&quot; of the character matters. Now, for other games, like say Ten Candles or VtM or OtE - my position on the scale between &quot;entity&quot; and &quot;your play&quot; shifts. Pretty much the more importance we show in chargen on mechanics and specifics for &quot;the entity &quot; the more I want to show that as time (choices) that matter. Five index cards with one word each as dramatic triggers - its gonna be mostly &quot;your play&quot; at every level. Point buy, classes, sub-classes, over a dozen skills, backgrounds, 20 level of mechanical changes, etc etc etc... &quot;entity&quot; is gonna matter more at the task level. But that's me.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="5ekyu, post: 7599016, member: 6919838"] Well said. I agree with your focus. Part of me thinks there might be generational divides that can exacerbate this - as someone who has a gaming lifespan that started in the 90s or at 3.x etc might not have gone thru the "glory days" seeing the rise and fall of all sorts of different approaches. "Do you think that the PC is a separate entity, capable of solving problems with an independent base of knowledge? Or do you think the PC is vessel for your play (the player)?" While I dont see these as mutually exclusive and see them as two ends on a spectrum I fall for DnD 5e games closer to the "entity" side, where the "your play" is key for the bigger picture stuff but the "separate entity is key for the more granular task level stuff. Take a fight - "your play" makes a world of difference - decisions on who to attack now, to attack or to cover, to heal or hurt, to fog cloud or serp, etc etc make eworld of difference and can swing the battle results in many ways. They can even shift the odds of the attacks, thru help or such. But the resolution of each task often comes down to the "separate entity" and their stats or specs. Or say we have a different challenge, a town beset by demonic plagues, needing cures we dont have. Again, "your play" can be huge - do you call in allies and if do which ones, do you send some folks to get cures from a nearby harbor instead, do you ho hunting the plague source yo get the cure from them etc etc etc. "Your play" is key to the overall effort, the strategic levels of the solution, but then at each of these actual efforts that will be where the "separate entity" and their capabilities matter. Did you send the big surly barbarian to try and talk the allies into coming to help? Did you send the charming thief to the harbor to try and "acquire" cures? The "who" of the character matters. Now, for other games, like say Ten Candles or VtM or OtE - my position on the scale between "entity" and "your play" shifts. Pretty much the more importance we show in chargen on mechanics and specifics for "the entity " the more I want to show that as time (choices) that matter. Five index cards with one word each as dramatic triggers - its gonna be mostly "your play" at every level. Point buy, classes, sub-classes, over a dozen skills, backgrounds, 20 level of mechanical changes, etc etc etc... "entity" is gonna matter more at the task level. But that's me. [/QUOTE]

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