Mike Holmes:
> Precisely. That's what I'm saying is the "work" that
> I'm trying to avoid.
No wonder we have different requirements. To me, that's the main part of the GM's job and one of the most fun parts of the game.
> So, in other words, the point limit is my hard
> guideline right up front for
> everyone. "Don't bother me with questions like that,
> simply use the limit
> and the character will be kosher."
But that's just numbers! And the character probably won't be "kosher", it'll probably have a back-story that clashes with known history in our world, or be missing some possible interesting links with the rest of the group, because I can't possibly expect a new player to absorb all that background. Throwing ideas at you for links is another part of my job. And you pick any you fancy. Interaction, again. Joint creation.
> >Yes, that would be a bit on the
> >high side by our standards, but we'd just say so,
> not
> >treat it as a deadly insult or evidence of idiocy
> or anything.
>
> Well, see, already the ambiguity sets in. Can I have
> it or not? Sounds like
> some hemming and hawing coming down the pike, maybe
> some negotiation.
Well of course negotiation! This is a roleplaying game, you have interaction between GM and players.
Look, what you do is tell me what you really want. You don't want "10W5", because that's a number. You perhaps want "as good a "destined to rule" ability as any of the other Argraths". Fine. You can have it. If you want an ability a mastery higher, you can have it. What numbers correspond to that is my problem, not yours. If you give me a number, then I have to say "you do realise that's two masteries higher than anyone else in the universe?" and you say "oops, that isn't what I meant at all". Or you might want "about as good a fighter as the rest of the PCs", and again, how to set the numbers for that is my problem, not yours (though at least in that case the numbers are recorded, and standards exist, so you could do it yourself if you really wanted to).
Whether adding your Hit Things number and your Destined to Rule the Universe number plus some other numbers comes to some other arbitrary number, or not, is simply irrelevant. What we want to know is whether it makes dramatic sense that this (till now) background NPC is in fact the best fighter in the group - and that means justification in terms of backstory, not numbers.
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