Quote:
Originally Posted by Pseudonym
Maybe you are saving the concept for another post, but one big thing I feel like you need to touch on is templates. Though they transfer a lot of work to the GM, is a really good shortcut in building a character, and one that fits the campaign. It's kinda like training wheels to make sure your player hits all of the bases without requiring enough system mastery to know what to buy and what to ignore.
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Absolutely. I'm of two minds about templates. On the one hand, they do reduce the number of decisions players need to make, and they set expectations for a campaign. But, they also require more effort on the part of the GM, and they don't necessarily simplify the game. I remember running a DF game with a group of new players, and they were really lost by all the advantages on the DF templates because those words didn't mean anything to them. I as the GM could simplify some of it, but since I didn't have all the advantages memorized we spent a fair amount of time reading explanations in Basic Set. I'm actually curious how other GMs handle the "technical language" barrier in templates, because a lot of template advantages are not intuitively obvious to brand new players.