Re-calibrating Attribute Costs

[Arcanjo7Sagi]

Originally Posted by mburr0003

Now, Tony Stark? Yeah, if I were building Tony I'd want IQ 18 (16 minimum!) because there are IQ skills I haven't even listed that he's shown using, not to mention the four or so social skills... but if I want to play "redneck Iron Man" (and not some 'diesel-punk' version) it's stupidly expensive to make the PC using the current rules.

The system is designed so that some choices are going to be better than others. Some characters will be more optimized for X or Y. Wanting an unoptimized character to be as good as an optimized one in your area is almost paradoxical.

I understand the motivation, to make the game fun for everyone. But if the player wants his character to be as good as Lionel Messi in football/soccer, with Stephen Hawking's sheet... then it becomes really difficult.

Despite the above exaggeration, I really understand. Sometimes we think of a character concept that is not efficient in points. It happens. I've had some of those: characters that didn't make sense to have IQ or DX 18, but who were competent in many areas. In the case in question, it would conceptually have about 3, maybe 4 Talents. But the cost of these Talents added together was greater than simply increasing attributes. It wasn't efficient. So yes, some characters are not attractive from a cost-benefit point of view.

However, this ceases to be a problem when the group stops caring about point balance. It's not for everyone, it's not for every game, but sometimes people just want to make characters and have fun and don't care if there's a difference between points. As long as everyone has space in the game, some people don't care.

It's like playing Justice League or Avengers. Characters like Thor and Superman have far more points than Batman or Captain America. But when the story is done well, everyone has room to shine and have fun.

I know it's not the solution you're looking for, but it's something that works for me. Sometimes.

I understand that RPG balance is a common concern. Not every system cares, but I understand it's a recurring subject. But when we have an excess of concern in this, it can lead to lands where it is not attractive to me, like in D&D 4: from worrying so much about being balanced, it ended with the taste of the unique aspect that each class had, and everyone it became the same in a way that didn't attract me.

I know this isn't exactly what you're saying or looking for, but I thought it was a related topic.