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<blockquote data-quote="Janx" data-source="post: 5025776" data-attributes="member: 8835">part of me interprets that as invisibly suffixed with &quot; that Woas doesn't subscribe to&quot;.&nbsp; I think that would thereby prove my point.&nbsp; Have your group fire you and hire me to run the game.&nbsp; Instantly different tone and style.&nbsp; Then after 3 sessions fire me and hire Ariosto.&nbsp; Once again hugely different.DMs aren't hot-swappable.&nbsp; That reason is because of the differences in how we approach DMing.That lack of level is what I hate about traveller.&nbsp; THough traveller also having the built in mechanic for creating PCs with varying experience &quot;levels&quot;.&nbsp; When I say I like levels, it is solely as a mechanic for building NPCs.&nbsp; If the party is 5th level,that tells me something about its strength and capability, its experience.&nbsp; If the party has been playing for 10 sessions, what does that mean in regards to the skill level?&nbsp; I'd have to reverse engineer how many skill points they've earned, or look at their &quot;combat&quot; skills.I sense a recurring concept of &quot;players pursuing/exploring themes&quot; in this and the next point by you.&nbsp; The folks I play with don't consider things from this perspective.&nbsp; The world is a theme unto itself.&nbsp; You build your PC to fit in that world and explore the interaction.If the char-gen rules don't give you more than 100GP starting gold, then you can't have it.&nbsp; If you can't have it, your background can't say you have it.Which then gets to you can't &quot;explore playing a rich kid&quot; because the game we're playing doesn't let you make a rich kid.As a general rule, we don't build a PC to &quot;explore&quot; a theme.&nbsp; We make a PC that would plausibly fit in the world's starting conditions and stuff happens and we deal with it.&nbsp; The characters with &quot;angst&quot; and &quot;baggage&quot; accued it and the players felt it because it happened in game, not because they made up some drama on their char sheet.Thus, the themes we explore are spontaneous/organic.&nbsp; Not planned out pre-gamestart.I don't realize that the monk might become an alcoholic until after some sessions where he's disgraced himself, lost his girlfriend who's brother in the rival clan and drinking heavily.&nbsp; None of those events were stuff I planned as a DM, they were the outcome of player choices during the sessions.&nbsp; So I talk to the player about it, and he decides that'd be a cool problem, namely because it'll add &quot;chaacter&quot; and be a bit of nuisance challenge for the other players.Themes happen.&nbsp; The best ones are because of character growth, which happens in game.&nbsp; Much like an author discovers as his main character changes within the book.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Janx, post: 5025776, member: 8835"] part of me interprets that as invisibly suffixed with " that Woas doesn't subscribe to". I think that would thereby prove my point. Have your group fire you and hire me to run the game. Instantly different tone and style. Then after 3 sessions fire me and hire Ariosto. Once again hugely different. DMs aren't hot-swappable. That reason is because of the differences in how we approach DMing. That lack of level is what I hate about traveller. THough traveller also having the built in mechanic for creating PCs with varying experience "levels". When I say I like levels, it is solely as a mechanic for building NPCs. If the party is 5th level,that tells me something about its strength and capability, its experience. If the party has been playing for 10 sessions, what does that mean in regards to the skill level? I'd have to reverse engineer how many skill points they've earned, or look at their "combat" skills. I sense a recurring concept of "players pursuing/exploring themes" in this and the next point by you. The folks I play with don't consider things from this perspective. The world is a theme unto itself. You build your PC to fit in that world and explore the interaction. If the char-gen rules don't give you more than 100GP starting gold, then you can't have it. If you can't have it, your background can't say you have it. Which then gets to you can't "explore playing a rich kid" because the game we're playing doesn't let you make a rich kid. As a general rule, we don't build a PC to "explore" a theme. We make a PC that would plausibly fit in the world's starting conditions and stuff happens and we deal with it. The characters with "angst" and "baggage" accued it and the players felt it because it happened in game, not because they made up some drama on their char sheet. Thus, the themes we explore are spontaneous/organic. Not planned out pre-gamestart. I don't realize that the monk might become an alcoholic until after some sessions where he's disgraced himself, lost his girlfriend who's brother in the rival clan and drinking heavily. None of those events were stuff I planned as a DM, they were the outcome of player choices during the sessions. So I talk to the player about it, and he decides that'd be a cool problem, namely because it'll add "chaacter" and be a bit of nuisance challenge for the other players. Themes happen. The best ones are because of character growth, which happens in game. Much like an author discovers as his main character changes within the book. [/QUOTE]

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