> He then goes on to ask:
>
> "what if its not possible to describe the character a
> player wants"
>
> The answer to that one is two-fold: I haven't seen it
> yet and if it is, well, that's life. There are plenty
> of characters you can't get using the standard
> character creation rules (try starting as a Rune Lord
> using the standard rules for example) as well, and
> this method is really no different.
I think it's very different. After all, it prohibits a range of characters that the standard rules don't, while still prohibiting (for sound reasons) the ones that they do. So its a tighter restriction - and one that excludes all the types of character that I personally like to play.
>
> The central observation that lead me to this method
> was that every character in every game I've played in
> or GMed has one or two things they develop to the
> exclusion of everything else.
How strange. That's very much not my experience. Not that there's anything wrong with it, of course, and I've met many players that do do it. But in my experience, they're a minority.
> This even happens in con
> games where you get a pile of abilities to wade
> through. People can only assimilate a few quickly so
> they end up being played as if there were only a few
> on the character sheet.
Well, convention games are a very different beast, and it does make sense there. Such characters are often OK as one-offs; its in regular campaigns that I'd object to playing them.
> Players seem to guide their characters down fairly
> tightly defined paths of competence. Probably because
> it doesn't make a lot of sense not to with the rules
> as written.
I don't know about that. You may well be right that it doesn't make 'sense' - as I said before, I'm really lousy at judging that sort of thing. But it does, for players like me, make a character worthwhile playing. Characters with 'tightly defined paths of competence' just bore the pants off me as a player (excluding one-off games).
If it works for you and your group, then that's all to the good. But, wow, it wouldn't work for me! :)
-- Trotsky Gamer and Skeptic ------------------------------------------------------ Trotsky's RPG website: http://www.ttrotsky.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/
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