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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Calzone" data-source="post: 5614644" data-attributes="member: 87629">I just started reading, but I wanted to address this before I got too far in. I find it a little difficult to believe that "sameness" is much of a possibility, given the 20+ classes, most with several features to choose from, multi classing, hybrid classing, the thousands of available powers, backgrounds, themes, weapon, armor, and equipment choices, etc. All of this and we haven't even gotten into the core character differentiator, character background and roleplaying. CharOp may well be upset, but I think cries of sameness might fall flat on their face <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" />The biggest thing I dislike about 4e (and I really like it overall) is option bloat. I have a small group and we tend to play a bunch of one-offs as we explore different concepts. What that means is, we end up needing to generate a whole bunch of characters, often one per play session, and the hour+ it takes to roll up a new interesting character is just too much. It's such a problem to me that I've been working on a home brew 4e mod to simplify character generation while still preserving a degree of player choice.One of the options I've looked at as an alternative to feats is giving the players what I'll call backgrounds, for lack of a better word. Players choose 2 backgrounds, phrases that describe a part of their characters nature or development, such as "heir apparent" or "student of a grandmaster Druid". Whenever they can tie in their background with a non-combat die roll, they get +2 to the roll. I also give out "bennies" the players can spend for things like action points and rerolls. One of the things they get a Benny for is me introducing complications to the game due to a character's background. One of the things they can spend a Benny on is to use their background for a minor benefit in the narrative. As an example, one could spend a Benny to invoke their "heir apparent" background to get an invitation to the duke's ball.The important thing is I don't have a list of backgrounds for players to choose from, they make up their own. The broader the background, the more often they can get bonuses from it, but the easier it is for me to introduce complications due to it. Also, their background has a direct impact on the game world as they spend bennies to draw on their past past experiences.</blockquote>

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