The Dresden Files > DFRPG

Help Me - I want to run Dresden

<< < (2/4) > >>

iago:
That said...

There's a fun little "trick" in Fate in general that may not be obvious to your friends. Creating flawed characters makes you more powerful. You're less of a loser by playing someone who can lose. From a strictly gamey, min-maxy perspective, creating characters with big honking flaws means you'll get more currency faster that you can spend to make your character be more awesome when the moment really needs it.  You could *try* selling your friends on this idea, but it's tricky.

SoulCatcher78:

--- Quote from: iago on February 08, 2010, 07:32:11 PM ---That said...

There's a fun little "trick" in Fate in general that may not be obvious to your friends. Creating flawed characters makes you more powerful. You're less of a loser by playing someone who can lose. From a strictly gamey, min-maxy perspective, creating characters with big honking flaws means you'll get more currency faster that you can spend to make your character be more awesome when the moment really needs it.  You could *try* selling your friends on this idea, but it's tricky.

--- End quote ---

This occured to me after reading some of the playtester notes.  Replenishment of fate points (so that I can have a higher probability of succedding on my over the top chandalier swinging moves) is going to be critical to the player who wishes to be "flashy".  Characters with flaws have a higher chance of being faced with "compels" (if I'm using the terminology correctly) than characters who are created without flaws.  How you interpret the flaw when compelled makes the story interesting (there were some excellent examples given here in the comments).  Being hit with a compel doesn't mean the character is forced into the worst case scenario of the flaw (although it is possible). 

This is one of the more interesting things about the system so far (and why it works so well in the Dresdenverse).  You don't want to play a perfect charactrer, those are the boring ones.

Bosh:
For the powergamers, I wouldn't worry about them making combat wombats since it is VERY hard to make an unbalance/overpowered character in Fate and as Fred has already mentioned generally in Fate the flawed characters are the powerful ones (probably the best way to be a munchkin in Fate is to be a fishmalk and try to milk Fate points by doing random crazy stuff all the time, but that can be reined in pretty easily by a good GM).

With the powergamers I'd try to steer them towards aspects that are awesome but can still be compelled. For example:

Looks like a badass: good for many things but can be compelled to make people notice him and focus on him when he's trying to maintain a low profile.

I don't take any lip: quite a bit like Dresden complete lack of diplomatic abilities (at least in the earlier books) where he needlessly antagonizes all kinds of people.

I can take him alone: gets a compel to take a baddie on one-on-one.

That sort of thing, basically give them compels to do muscleheaded stuff and they'll get Fate points for acting "badass" and they might even like the game. Probably cater to what they want a bit and give them plenty of jerky enemies that disrespect them personally that they can pound into the floor. A bit of mindless violence can be fun and the aspects could get them in the mood of comic book style smackdown, which seems to be what they want.

SoulCatcher78:

--- Quote from: Bosh on February 09, 2010, 04:20:42 AM ---For the powergamers, I wouldn't worry about them making combat wombats since it is VERY hard to make an unbalance/overpowered character in Fate and as Fred has already mentioned generally in Fate the flawed characters are the powerful ones (probably the best way to be a munchkin in Fate is to be a fishmalk and try to milk Fate points by doing random crazy stuff all the time, but that can be reined in pretty easily by a good GM).

With the powergamers I'd try to steer them towards aspects that are awesome but can still be compelled. For example:

Looks like a badass: good for many things but can be compelled to make people notice him and focus on him when he's trying to maintain a low profile.

I don't take any lip: quite a bit like Dresden complete lack of diplomatic abilities (at least in the earlier books) where he needlessly antagonizes all kinds of people.

I can take him alone: gets a compel to take a baddie on one-on-one.

That sort of thing, basically give them compels to do muscleheaded stuff and they'll get Fate points for acting "badass" and they might even like the game. Probably cater to what they want a bit and give them plenty of jerky enemies that disrespect them personally that they can pound into the floor. A bit of mindless violence can be fun and the aspects could get them in the mood of comic book style smackdown, which seems to be what they want.

--- End quote ---

Consider that idea stolen!

iago:
Excellent judo-flip there, Bosh. Yeah: figuring out flaws that make the character more of a badass (though in ways that always complicate the situation) is an interesting way to try to address the "loser" concern.

Navigation

[0] Message Index

[#] Next page

[*] Previous page