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Old 09-24-2018, 12:29 PM   #20
robertsconley
 
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Join Date: Jul 2006
Default Re: Does DFRPG more and more resemble a super hero game to you

Quote:
Originally Posted by Kromm View Post
This generates similarities, the most important of which are "the protagonists are more powerful than most people around them"
That is not only view of the relative power of characters nor the most common. Back in the day it was split between the above and every NPC had a level like in Judges Guild City-State of the Invincible Overlord.

In OD&D even if PCs are special and the only ones with levels, low level monsters in quantity remained a significant threat to PCs up to "name" level (9th) and sometime beyond.

Especially if one followed the recommend treasure distribution. It wasn't until late AD&D after Unearthed Arcana where even a 1st level PC was far more capable than a 1 HD monster.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Kromm View Post
and "if there's more than one protagonist, the characters will have distinctive niches to justify the presence of several heroes rather than just one." That doesn't mean the genre conventions or tropes are the same overall.
A later addition and one that didn't get cemented until 3rd edition D&D. The trend was to add more mechanics to allow characters to do more things outside of their core class abilities. This trend was in full flower with AD&D 2nd Edition which had kits and customized things for the myriad settings TSR supported.

In OD&D each class (fighter, magic user, cleric) could basically do one unique thing. For everything else the players was expected to use their wits and use their character's attributes as a guide as to what the PC was good at.

Many don't realize that with OD&D all three classes had the exact same chance of a hitting an opponent and all did the same amount of damage except for high strength fighters.

The idea that Dungeon Delving was largely about those two things is what did D&D 4th edition in.
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