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Message: <blockquote data-quote="pemerton" data-source="post: 6016901" data-attributes="member: 42582">I know you said this, but I still don't understand why? What is the risk? What are you envisaging going wrong?Well, presumably the group has already agreed to a certain system before they start, so this has been dealt with.In systems in which status can be purchased as part of PC build, the GM is generally expected to shape the ingame situation to reflect those choices. Just as, in classic D&D, if a player wants to play a paladin, the GM doesn't present, as the first scenario, an orphanage massacre. (Three Days to Kill, an early d20 adventure, has a more subtle discussion of this sort of issue, to which it potentially gives rise.)Conversely, that a system both (i) builds a mount into a PC's advancement, and (ii) doesn't give the GM any advice on how to handle this, is a weakness in the system.Again, the GM can't. Not without changing the PC build rules. Just as a 3E GM can't change the frequency of scrolls without changing the PC build rules that give all wizards Scribe Scrolls for free.I'm not entirely sure what you have in mind here, but obviously a system in which certain benefits are purchased using PC build resources has to be careful about handing out other ways of acquiring the same benefits: be that items, feats, skill points, or whatever (contrast 3E, for example, with RuneQuest or Burning Wheel: in the latter two games you can improve skills by adventuring, or by paying for training; in 3E, you can only improve skills by adventuring - presumably 3E is limited in this way for balance reasons).Maybe, maybe not. That depends on how the game is set up. It doesn't follow that, just because the game supports items as part of the PC's build it supports status, nor vice versa. The Dying Earth permits items but not status. HeroWars/Quest likewise. As you yourself note, classic D&D permits status but not items. (As well as the rule you mention, there are the rules in AD&D Oriental Adventures for a samurai PC becoming an estate overseer at (I think) 5th level, and a provincial governor at (I think) 7th level.)HARP permits both (although I wouldn't say that HARP is an especially good example of how to do either - it doesn't have the requisite GM advice on scene framing or adjudication of consequences to support them).</blockquote>

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