Greetings,
On Tue, 20 Dec 2005 14:09:04 CST, Karen J. Cravens wrote
> The perennial "should skills and attributes be linked" has come up on the
> Fudge List, and as an offshoot of it minmaxing came up... specifically,
> how to deal with the one-trick pony who's dumped everything into one
> uber-skill.
>
> Several people gave advice then on how to bypass that skill... which leads
> me to ask the question, did the player pick that uber-skill because he
> wanted it to be the focus for him? And if so, what happens when the GM
> does nothing but avoid it?
>
> It reflects a bigger problem I have with any point-build system... or
> heck, *any* character generation system. Do the points, levels, or
> whatever actually express the most important things (for player *and* GM)
> about that character?
I think the problem is that it SHOULD express something important but too
often it is received as something entirely different. The player might be
saying "I want to be awesome at combat", but the GM is hearing "I want to
break your plot".
I think that the root cause of this is that combat is too easy for the GM to
use as a plot device. Diplomacy, subterfuge, stealth, artistry are all options
that could move the plot forward but for the most part combat is used in most
games. It is far easier to put in a combat encounter than a art competition.
It is far easier to force a player to stay within the limits of he character
in battle than in a riddle contest.
Min/Maxing is a problem because games do not have a level playing field.
Combat is more important than diplomacy. The person who has uber-skills in
combat has a disproportionate advantage over the character with an uber-skill
in diplomacy.
Games that do have a level playing field (like Amber) min/maxing is part of
the game system. You are encouraged to be the best in something because
everyone is going to try to be the best in one thing. I think Buffy also has
ths type of rule where each character can identify ONE thing that is their
specialty. If I choose computers, anyone in the group can take skills in
computers but I will always be the best in computers in the group.
-- -------------------------------------------------------------------
Shane
shane.knysh at YonerDotCom http://churchofthegame.blogspot.com/
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