Topic: Static Development Points?

[GrumpyOldFart]

Your Olympic (extreme) power-gamer may know how to run and jump real high every single time, but this is a pentathalon where more than that matters.

Exactly. If your power gamer is willing to be the Olympian who can run and jump real high every single time, but stands no chance whatever in the pentathlon, that's his choice. If the GM points this out to him during chargen and he still makes that choice, well that's what the guy wanted, okay.

From where I sit, the only "problem" that creates is that it puts the responsibility on the GM to make sure the game remains a pentathlon, rather than limiting it to running and jumping so as to conform to the strengths of his players.

And no, I'm not suggesting that the dynamic DP system is flawed, I am suggesting that min-maxing and power gaming is one of those things some people do, both in RL and in the game. As folks here have pointed out, it carries a price. If he's willing to pay it (possibly to his death), I don't see any reason not to let him.

[NEPHiLiX]

Your Olympic (extreme) power-gamer may know how to run and jump real high every single time, but this is a pentathalon where more than that matters.

Exactly. If your power gamer is willing to be the Olympian who can run and jump real high every single time, but stands no chance whatever in the pentathlon, that's his choice. If the GM points this out to him during chargen and he still makes that choice, well that's what the guy wanted, okay.

From where I sit, the only "problem" that creates is that it puts the responsibility on the GM to make sure the game remains a pentathlon, rather than limiting it to running and jumping so as to conform to the strengths of his players.

And no, I'm not suggesting that the dynamic DP system is flawed, I am suggesting that min-maxing and power gaming is one of those things some people do, both in RL and in the game. As folks here have pointed out, it carries a price. If he's willing to pay it (possibly to his death), I don't see any reason not to let him.

I absolutely agree.

Although it isn't any more of a problem for a GM to keep options open for evolving the storyline (keeping it a "pentathalon" by flitting from event to event as the plot commands) than it is for the GM to always keep it limited to one single event.

[jasonbrisbane]

Let me clarify my statement...

I have found (and players in my group who have also played with other people - but lets face it, we are generally talking the d20 system players here!) that people do NOT create characters with backgrounds but only as combat wombats, legolas archers and Merlin magicians.... There are no characters created by those descriptions you both described in your posts...


Saying that we have found that one of our GM's tends to min max the monsters that the players go up against as he says the players are too powerful and we need a challenge - and why roleplay if you dont want the challenge... it has its merits and he does it within the confines of the system, but it is still min maxing to an extreme level (and I DO mean extreme!)

PS; our charcters are now level 14 - we started at level 1.

[NEPHiLiX]

Let me clarify my statement...

I have found (and players in my group who have also played with other people - but lets face it, we are generally talking the d20 system players here!) that people do NOT create characters with backgrounds but only as combat wombats, legolas archers and Merlin magicians.... There are no characters created by those descriptions you both described in your posts...

Saying that we have found that one of our GM's tends to min max the monsters that the players go up against as he says the players are too powerful and we need a challenge - and why roleplay if you dont want the challenge... it has its merits and he does it within the confines of the system, but it is still min maxing to an extreme level (and I DO mean extreme!).

I may be speaking out of turn here--because I'm not even sure if this comment is directed in whole or in part at me--but this doesn't seem to have anything to do with what I've been arguing.

(1) Nobody's against the GM maxing out the difficulty level of encounters at his/her discretion (at least nobody has said so explicitly in this thread). Like tournament PCs, monsters can be maxed because they are fire-and-forget entities. Monsters generally don't need balanced development because their raison d'etre is to challenge the PCs and die (or maybe live to return and challenge them again).

(2) Nobody's actually condemning power-gamers. My point, if you read my posts closely, is that maxing out Stat purchases every level puts the "stat-obsessed power-gamer" at a distinct disadvantage as it pertains to skills/talents (as explained above) vis-a-vis the organic developer during at least the first 10 levels even though it may appear otherwise.