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Message: <blockquote data-quote="JamesonCourage" data-source="post: 5652906" data-attributes="member: 6668292">Just thought I'd chime in on my feelings here. I definitely agree with S'mon here, in that I don't tailor anything to my PCs, though I am acutely aware of their abilities. Sometimes I internally wince when they make a decision I know isn't good for them, but I don't stop it, either, nor do I change the setting to accommodate them.Also, I don't have a story in mind. I react to the PCs actions, and evolve the setting naturally (military movements, NPCs getting married / giving birth / getting injured or sick / dying, rebellions, festivals, slavers or bandits or pirates making raids, etc.). This means that there is no story that I'm advocating for or against, and I can fulfill the role as arbiter pretty well. This leads to extremely low prep time for me, as well, which is a nice benefit.To this end, I do see the game as "about" the PCs, in that the focus in entirely on them. They are not "the ones empowered to make the most significant changes to the story" and they are not "pawns to those in the game world that can advance the story." They do not feel like they're the gods' gift to the setting, and they feel anything but worthless or helpless. I do not see them as anything particularly special within the setting, other than from mindset. That is, they aren't inherently better at anything than NPCs are. In fact, starting out at hit die 1 would be less capable than most NPCs. NPCs are built with the same system PCs are, and average around hit die 4. That's a lot of adversity to overcome in terms of power. On top of that, I don't give them plot protection: no fudging rolls, no fudging tactics, no fudging the setting to make up for bad decisions (or good ones), no fudging NPC statistics. If the PCs win, it's because they earned it. Smart play really helps in the early hit die if you're combat focused (which the game strongly supports, but does not mandate at all... you can be hit die 20 with 3 hit points and no weapon proficiencies).Where the PCs differ, really, is in mindset: they tend to have a drive that only certain NPCs match; they will fight for their lives until the last breath; they will fight for what they uphold even against great odds; they will do everything within their power to advance their vision of the world, rather than settle down; they will take risks that lesser beings will not. Truly, this is what separates them from most NPCs of any hit die (since you don't need to ever get into a fight in your life to advance in my game, NPCs can be higher hit die without being in a combat role).Then again, the game I made (and the game we play) is much grittier than a lot of other games, so my tastes seem to depart from a lot of other people. As always, play what you like <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=":)" /></blockquote>

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