Technik4 said:
There is a divide between games that I've been a part of - Storytelling and Tactical Wargaming. On the Storytelling end you have DM's that let some characters start with items from their background, or get a skill bonus when they complete a quest. Some characters are below the wealth level, and some may be over it. No one started with the same points to buy their characters attributes, they randomly determined them. The party does not all stay the same level, go on the same quests, or even necessarily like each other. Leveling up is determined almost entirely by the DM, usually at the end of a plot sequence. The experience on the whole requires a lot more attention from individual players and a great deal of work from the DM. On the Tactical Wargaming end you have players that want to be entirely equivalent so no one starts with an unfair advantage. Treasure is always split, sometimes to the point of selling a powerful item to distribute gold to rebuy other items rather than let the character who would benefit from its use the most simply have it. Instead of bonuses assigned by DM fiat, players often try to use material from a new source (book, magazine, self-designed). Experience is usually by-the-book, according to CR/EL and the DMG, with some minor bonuses for roleplaying. Overall it requires less work from all involved and can be quite a bit of fun (the combat).
Amen, brother! Preach it!
I was in a gaming group for a long time, and things were really going downhill. Nobody cared about anyting but power, magic items, stats and creating the biggest ubercharacter. We spent whole sessions doing nothing but combat, combat, combat.
Then, one day, someone suggested we do a one shot.
"3d6, in order," he said.
We all shifted uncomfortably in our seats.
"What if I roll badly?" someone asked.
"Then you just play with the hand you're dealt, man! Come on, live a little!"
The session was so much fun! Instead of combat, we had deep, immersive roleplaying. It felt like we were telling a story instead of just killing things.
In fact, we kept playing those characters. One of the people in our gaming group who'd been drinking fairly heavily and doing drugs started to clean up his life. He's been sober for eight months, now, and hasn't missed a single gaming session. Another guy, our cleric, has gone off his depression meds. I'm convinced, though I can't prove it, that rolling random stats may have saved the marriage of our DM.
I've read a lot of nostalgic rhapsodizing on this forum, lately. Low magic, gritty games. No item creation feats. Random treasure. Random stats. I suppose, to heighten my gaming experience, I should put races and classes on a dart board, and use a blindfold.
Come on, people. I have my preferences for stat and character generation, but they are just that: preferences. I've played in campaigns with random stat generation, and no, I'm sorry, it doesn't heighten the experience or create a better game.
Nostalgia is like crack. Break the habit.
Technik4 said:
The best games are somewhere in-between. I think the more Storytelling-ish your game is, the lower the stats (they are generally less important - actions not attributes win the day). The more Tactical Wargaming-ish your game is, the higher the stats (and the more important they are - against a bloodthirsty DM you need to try and eke out every +1 advantage you can).
Have you ever played any RPG other than D&D? I'm not asking that sarcastically, either. I mean, have you played a supers game? V&V, or Mutants & Masterminds? Or a GURPS Black Ops game with 700 point characters? Or how about a V:tM with more powerful vampires? How about Exalted, where your characters starts out as a solar, and works his way up?
Low stats do not equal storytelling-ish games. High stats do not prevent or inhibit story, any more than high fantasy or high magic. That is quite simply a myth.
Technik4 said:
Many of the fantasy novels and movies that people try to recreate with their games are based on heroes with wildly disparate abilities (levels). Look at R.A. Salvatore's Drizzt novels, the Conan movies, Lord of the Rings, Willow, etc etc. Maybe thats why I prefer rolling too
R.A. Salvatore's novels? You mean Drizzt, the "impossibly fast" TWF cheese twink? Or how about his campaign, Wulfgar, the "impossibly strong" barbarian warrior with the +5 returning warhammer? Or the most powerful of the dwarven fighters in that area? Using a Forgotten Realms novel to demonstrate wild disparities of power isn't your best bet.
Or how about Conan? Shall we look at Juma the Warrior, or Nestor the captain of the guard who chased him into the wilderness? The Queen of the Black Coast? Most of the people who traveled with Conan didn't live very long.
About the only real example that fulfills "wildly disparate abilities" is LOTR, and you'll notice that they split the group up after the Fellowship into appropriate groupings: Legolas, Gimli and Aragorn; Merry and Pippin; Frodo and Sam.
