QUOTE (Larme @ Mar 6 2008, 04:19 PM)
I see, the whole "if you don't play the game my way, you're wrong" argument.
In fact, it's even worse than that.
Synner 667's claim comes down to "if you play the game using the rules as written, you are cheating".
This statement is so utterly and fundamentally wrong that i still fail to imagine how he came up with that gem.
Priceless.
Don't get me wrong, if you're all "i as a GM
have to break the rules to make the game work" and "I'm god, we could as well just throw the rulebook out of the window and play freeform, but i'm too stuck in traditional roleplaying to do that", fine.
Wouldn't want to play in a group like that, but i'm not going to tell anyone else how to practise our hobby.
But assuming that someone who has built a character
completely within the limits of the rules, using only material allowed in his group (oh, i forgot it's a huge mistake to grant players access to anything, they'll just abuse it and screw their potential to roleplay convincingly) is actually
cheating...that's just amazing.
As far as three line backstories are concerned...yeah, i do write longer backstories than that, everybody i play with does, and that does not even begin to take into account how much thought i put in fleshing out connections, development possibilities and potential plot hooks for my PCs...excuse me, soulless numbercrunchy munching exercises.
But that's not the point.
It's not about the backstory, just as playing to win is not only about having high stats.
It's about bringing the character to life at the actual gaming table.
That's where the action takes part.
Good roleplaying is not as foreseeable as all the backstory fictionists sometimes seem to think.
It's about developing a feel for your interpretation of the character and, like all creative processes, finding what you where not looking for.
What you couldn't look for, as you didn't even know it existed beforehand.
It's about coming up with ideas that challenge your basic assumptions, about spontaneity and good improvisation.
It's about not sticking to the note sheet, but going out to jam.
A communicative, surprising and thought-provoking activity.
As you see, i love roleplaying.
The whole storytelling and method acting thing.
I'm really, really into that aspect of the game.
Does that mean i'm not interested in winning?
As in "being able to succeed at the task my character will be confronted with"?
Of course it doesn't.
When the dice come out, i want to kick some serious ass.
I want opportunities to influence the game, to
do something.
To plan and scheme and rock and roll.
For that, i need good builds.
And statting them up is tons of fun to me, as i'm an enthusiast about all aspects of RPGs, including the rules systems.
I want to take the system apart, take a look at the very gears that make it up and reassemble them in new, imaginative ways.
I don't give a damn about taking some ultraoptimized forum build and putting everybody to shame with my obscenely high dice pools.
I minmax as a play of thought, as a design challenge.
I want characters who surprise me in how they actually work out.
And i find an aesthetic fulfillment in good builds.
There is a unique elegance in the efficiency of a minmaxed character.
It's like a perfectly functional piece of industrial design.
And just like you can put a high performance engine under the hood of a stylistically superior Aston Martin V8 Vantage or in a squat-ugly, midlife-crisis-shouting Lamborghini, you can, roleplay-wise, go in any direction with such a build, just as you can do with a "suboptimal" concept.
Some might argue that this feels different than a character who started as a background concept and was statted out afterwards, but such before-after ways of designing are not my cup of tea, anyway.
It's a dynamic process.
I see a certain rule, a piece of gear, a magical tradition or whatever, that inspires me, i start mentally making a rough sketch of the character, then i go on with further elaborating the mechanical aspects and so on.
It's a constant feedback between two parts of the design process and in the end, i have something i could never have thought of.
And that's what i am always looking for, be it in roleplaying, when making music or when i try out a new cooking recipe for the first time.
Finding what i could not have expected and expanding my experiences.
Damn, now
i am sounding elitist.
Sorry.