One of the common threads I see on rpg sites are about the failures of various Point systems for character generation. Be it HERO, GURPS, or whatever.
Sometimes these are on the mark. For example GURPS depressing ability to make an highly experienced but rather average stat character cost far more than an equally skilled high stat but green new comer. The later will find it much cheaper to advance his skills and will in total do more with far fewer points. Most Point based systems suffer from this to greater or lesser degrees, most not approaching the serious foolishness found in GURPS that effectively derails certain character concepts out of the gate. A point system can go seriously wrong with it displays problems with it's own consistency.
But sometimes people just flatly miss the boat on some things. For example this thread where a number of people are whining that rich characters are forced to be incompetent.
Right out the gate one can see the assumption that Point Systems are 'balanced' and one 100 point PC is always equal to another differently constructed 100 point PC. This is simply false and for a very good reason. The designer of the Point System is not the designer of your adventures.
For example, one can buy a wonderful 10 ability in HERO System that prevents your character from being flanked or from taking out-numbered modifiers. Nice huh? Well it's 10 points completed wasted if your GM never has your character flanked or out-numbered. Heck, it's over-priced if the GM tends to focus on single big bad foes vs. the heroic team of underdogs.
And it's under-priced if you're playing Doc Savage vs. the hordes of villainous cannon folder every single adventure. The door swings both ways.
So it’s plain that out of the gate, no game can make the expenditure of those 10 points balanced. Thus game balance can't really be the point of the system design now can it?
So what do those Points actually represent? That's simple- purchasing power in a nearly capitalist sense. It's just as if you had $100 and went to the store.
And now here's the real big kicker on this. And I mean really big.
You're not buying abilities for the mythical completely balanced campaign where every 1 point spent on X is always equal to one spent on Y. You're buying it for the campaign you're actually playing in. And in order to do this, you're buying you're GM's agreement that it will work out that way in his adventures.
So, to return to why so many people at thread above missed the boat. It's because the player who buys 10 points of wealth in HERO is buying an agreement with the GM that he will allow that character to either overcome or deal with problems that 10 points of wealth can deal with.
If the GM doesn't want to include things for that wealth to overcome in his campaign, he of course can declare that. And at the point the 10 point Wealth perk now costs nothing, because that's the effect it's going to have on the important matters of the campaign. Put on your character sheet as background fluff for that's what it is, much like eye color.
And this people is how you get rich characters who are in every way the equal of normal joes in Point Systems like HERO. Just remember, you're not buying wealth. Weath is free, what you are buying is the right to throw Wealth around like it was a 800 lb ape- and changing the direction of the adventure as you do so.
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3 comments:
Outside of point buy systems, the campaign choices made for the game, usually by the GM, have serious consequences for the player looking to create an effective, powerful, "fun" (i.e. min-maxed) PC. Consider the player creating a character for one of the more recent editions of the world's most popular role-playing game: he combines Cleric and Ranger w/undead as a favored enemy, to create an effective vampire-hunter. When the game starts, the GM informs the players that the bulk of trouble in the campaign world comes from a cabal of wizards located in the city, allied with a tribe of giants. Oops!
Even after character creation, the structure of the challenges faced by the PCs, which is otherwise called the campaign, may work to make certain PC competencies or advantages next to worthless. For example, a PC discovers an ancient magical blade, optimized for slaying dragons, in a campaign where the beasties are all but extinct, and the character is unlikely to ever meet a dragon, let alone fight one.
This is a worthwhile point for any who think that random systems avoid the same GM influence found in Point Systems. The only difference is that Point Systems put an explicit value on it.
Thanks for the comment.
I wish that I had more to say other than you make the point well. There should be good communication between the GM and players so that where the rules are concerned, the PCs have an opportunity to represent the GMs ideas on the game and vice versa. Players who cannot leverage the advantages they invested in tend to be justifiably unhappy about it.
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