Post/Author/DateTime	Post
Shimmer01 08-14-05, 01:28 PM	ASk yourself this, what does my character do? Does he get angry easily? Has he had to live by himself for awhile in the wilds? Did he live with a magic user for a couple of years? This would be your background. But then you go and create a level five fighter off the bat. Because you'll have plenty of feats to power yourself up. Or you'll multiclass so you can get to a presitege class faster. But here's where I have the problem. Are players today just building characters to make them powerhouses that can't be defeated? Where I play, the others don't seem to put much more thought into their characters. I mean, yeah they have a background and a set personality, but they look over the feats and try to just beef their character up. Is this wrong? No. But it kinda takes the fun out of your character. If you spent some time with a wizard or sorcerer, you may have picked something up and have one level in that. Same if you were lost in the woods and had to survive on your own. You probably could take a level in druid or barbarian. I'm going to try to make my character the way I have him really pictured. He'll start off as a fighter, but then get some sorcerer levels for being with a sorcerer for awhile. But yet he'll develope a bad temper later on and get a barbarian level for the Rage ability. I'll take experience penalties, true, but it does make my character seem more unique and thought out. And even if its on the wrong board, look at Drizzt. He's a high level ranger with only one level in barbarian I believe just because he spent some time alone in the underdark and did develope an anger against his kind.
Duration_10_Rounds 08-14-05, 02:06 PM	It is true D&D rules just seem to make some of us damp with anticipation of builing sweat combo's that are cheesy-muchkin-a-rific. I have a good background and story for all my characters regardless of game... but when it comes to D&D both me and my group actuly roleplay a LOT less than we do when playing World of Darkness, Warhammer, (old)Cthulhu, Champions, Rifts, Cyberpunk, home brew systems..... pretty much every thing. With D&D you want to be a character of great legend (or atleast of great shows and movies), you want to be Conan, Frodo, Hercules, Gandalf, Xena, etc, etc.... and the truth of the matter is these folks just dont spend hours conversing with the hoy-paloy or helping irrigate a small farming village they get sweaty and bloody and cut a path of destruction through legions of foes. D&D is pretty Roleplaying-Light/Combat-Heavy and even if its not meant to be it usualy degenerates into that quite quickly... thats no bad thing some of us really like our action games with a smidgin of fantasy roleplay. But for a better roleplaying experiance that more players can easily interact with we find recent-past/modern-day/near-future settings where the players play much more mundane, easily killed, people to inspire much greater roleplaying... as you can empathise with your character much more. Where as in D&D your living out a fantasy where your some great hero and tend to do what would be "cool" rather than what a real person would do. For example, if you have played horror games where players are easily gibbed by almost any foe (the origonal Chaosium Call of Cthulhu for example) players RP fear a thousand times better then they would is told "Before you stands the titanic, horrorfying, crimson visage of what could only be the greatest and most ancient red dragon ther ever was" in a D&D game.... because great heroes dont soil thier knickers in novels and films. If you want more RPing then prahaps look else where?
Templetroll 08-14-05, 11:11 PM	I've often done the powergamed build and the role-play build when creating a character. It's not much different in most cases; usually one feat or couple of skill choices make it one or the other. I've found that other players appreciate the role-play style characters more, because any weirdness it the character does it due to my roleplaying instead of something to do with the rules.
xvthreetwoonevx 08-15-05, 02:41 AM	I myself am a tad of a powergamer, and yes, I will admit that I sometimes build characters for the sake of butt-kicking, but that's just because that's how I have fun. I just don't LIKE playing a character that's not very good at what he does, unless he's not supposed to be and I just made him for comedic value :-p. My gaming table seems to think that making poor building desicions qualifies as roleplaying, which to me seems just silly. I mean, I will write several pages of backstory, or i'll get a great idea for a character, and I certainly will roleplay him, but I will not give myself XP penalties or wear crappy armor just for the sake of doing so! If my sorcerer was stuck in a forest and had to fend for himself, I might give him a level of barbarian, or druid, but instead of just having that extra level tacked on for no reason I would attempt to maximize it's effectiveness, with, say, the Rage Mage PrC. Basically, I think some people build the character, then the story, and others build the story, then the character, but even somebody that puts out vast amounts of damage per round and is very, very good at what he does can still be roleplayed just fine. Sucking just for the sake of sucking and calling it roleplaying is not my idea of fun, personally.
spoogemonkey 08-15-05, 06:06 PM	well, I am of the opposite school. I prefer a "roleplay" character that usually doesn't conflict with the build. But my group usually starts a campaign at level one. So, the build is just wishful thinking. As for powergaming.... I don't get it. The DM will just throw tougher monsters at you to compensate. My group has just as much fun and satisfaction from killing a wolf as PowerGamers do killing a dragon. But we have a LOT more fun OUT of combat than the powergamers. PowerGamers just tend to roleplay bullies when not in combat. But for you.... it is necessary to play a character appropriate for your group. If THEY are powergamers - you had better join in..... or your 12 page back story will just have to be re-written for your next character when this one dies the first night. The only way to break the powergamer cycle.... is to DM.... and start a new campaign.... at level 0.... and REWARD roleplaying equally with monster-killing, and give the party "situations" and "delimas" rather than just monsters. It's a different style..... and some people get bored with it quickly. Likewise, some tire of constantly fighting nastier and nastier monsters. You can be Heroic either way....(but Monster killing is more macho)
Otto the Bugbear 08-15-05, 06:55 PM	I think there are several reasons why you see this more. First, the internet has quite an impact on what you see. It's far more likely that you'll see people showing off what they consider their latest cool combination of feats, classes, skils, and abilities rather than their latest cool backstory. Another thing is the number of newer players. For the vast majority of gamers I've known and spoken to, we all started out as power hungry players. Even many DMs found themselves in this mode of play; "Cool! A sunsword! I'll give that to Bob's fighter!" THIS IS A GOOD THING. It may seem like "the death of roleplaying" to quote one recent overly dramatic thread. However, look at it a different way. A lot of new players (all showing off their no-background builds), means success for WotC. Success for WotC means D&D products for many years to come. This makes me a happy Bugbear. :bounce: There is also a tendency for people to see more of what they dislike and scan over that which they like. This means people will think the no-background builds are rampant, while thinking the in-depth characters are few and far between. It's just human nature. Or perhaps it's just what I think I've seen of human nature. Overall though, don't worry about it. If they're having fun with their no-background builds, then at least they're still interested in the game. Plus, it's not like there is a limit to the number of gamers allowed in the world. They're not taking up space and disallowing a "roleplayer" to enjoy the game as well. (Unless they're at odds in the same group. In which case, the odd man out need only find a different group.) Cheers Otto :)
Count Arioch the 28th 08-15-05, 09:10 PM	I have a good background and story for all my characters regardless of game... but when it comes to D&D both me and my group actuly roleplay a LOT less than we do when playing World of Darkness, Warhammer, (old)Cthulhu, Champions, Rifts, Cyberpunk, home brew systems..... pretty much every thing. SNIP World of Darkness is chock full of powergamers of the worst sort, rifts is almost as bad, and Warhammer is 100% wargaming, with no roleplaying implied or asked for. How can you have less roleplaying than those systems and still show life signs?
Laranis Callirr 08-15-05, 09:46 PM	I find it funny how people debate issues like this, and yet the most popular threads on this forum always deal with rules, or things related to rules; while threads about roleplay, or the Character Development board are rarely frequented. ;)
the dmg 08-16-05, 02:17 AM	I always create a background for my character first, and then choose a class that fits that character best. Since I love to have depth in my characters, I find this way the best for me.
Nuntius128 08-16-05, 02:32 AM	I, at the least, map out in my head what race/class I'd like to play, then I get a general idea of what I'd like to do with a character from that. After I've developed that skeleton for my character, I write up(in my head) a background story for my character, incorporating the direction of the character into it. After that, I work out mechanics, and all that crap, and I have a finished character. For example, tonight, while I was at work(about 2 hours ago, actually), I was thinking that I really wanted to make a Lumi character. And I knew their favored class was Cleric, but I wanted to go wth a deity that would be suitable. Then I thought of a goal for my character: to become as luminescent as possible. After that, I asked myself(as I often do): Why? Well, perhaps my Lumi had come to the Material Plane, and had been quite awe-struck by the sun. The Sun? Its just so bright. What better way to become One with the Sun than to be a Cleric of Pelor? And that's how I came upon the base of my character. Then, after choosing the base class, I try to think of any PrC that might be handy/dandy for the character. What other entities are very bright? Lantern Archons. Maybe he could meet a Lantern Archon, and try to find a way to match its brightness, and best it. That's how I came across the idea of the Infused Spellcaster PrC(Dragon #321) using Lantern Archon as the base Celestial. Thus, there I've built a Lumi Cleric/Infused Spellcaster. That's just how I do it, though, and I've found a lot of interesting characters that way.
A Man In Black 08-16-05, 08:14 AM	Warhammer is 100% wargaming, with no roleplaying implied or asked for. Pretty sure he's referring to Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay there, which recently was revived after GW bought out Hogshead, the old publishers of WFRP.
Duration_10_Rounds 08-16-05, 08:39 AM	SNIP World of Darkness is chock full of powergamers of the worst sort, rifts is almost as bad, and Warhammer is 100% wargaming, with no roleplaying implied or asked for. How can you have less roleplaying than those systems and still show life signs? Welll seeing as you didnt even know there was a warhammer RPG i'll discount your rant as... well just a rant.