<the spectral form of an old wizard flickers weakly into view>
Pardon me. Do you mind if I present an alternative view? Particularly in the area of
"What's your opinion about gender/race/class/alignment restrictions?" and balance. I am very fond of personalizing the RP experience. This means both restrictions and bonuses.
Take your half-orc, for example. If he is restricted from one path, he should have an alternative not available for other races. Upon Amethyst, the Orccen (half-orc) race does not carry the stigma it does in the Forgotten Realms, they are just one of the "Younger Races" (with the hobben & sylven). None-the-less, they have different cultural priorities and resources than the others. Enforcing these restrictions, highlighting the differences in race & class & even gender makes the *choices* made by the PC more important. If you dilute these differences too much, why play a non-human at all? Why play a non-human, non-fighter, non-male character?
In the official campaign this was used rather effectively via the henchman quests (though I was quite annoyed my choice of Daelan made no effect upon the uthgardt encounters). Having radically different quests made sense in game and added a lot of flavor.
To put a different spin on it, how does a gnome wizard feel about finding two dozen uber-greatswords and red dragon full-plate on his adventure? "Um, ok. Guess I can sell it..."
To personalize the experience means you need to bias the adventure (either by hand or through scripting) so that both the adventure and the rewards(/punishment ;-) are pertinent. You've really got to make the world seem to pay attention. And that brings us back to the question of restrictions and balance. Let's see if I can give an example that makes sense.
Kiriel, young druid, needs a focus/weapon. Upon Amethyst, she would enter the forest seeking a certain tree/dryad pair to bargain for a staff. The staff, based upon a standard +1 quarterstaff, will be scripted to grow in power (tracking PC xp gained while equipped) and will learn to be a very powerful druid focus/weapon. But she will be just a plain old +1 quarterstaff to anyone else. That quest (for the staff) and the bonuses gained from it are very much class restricted, but they don't hinder other classes/races/etc. (Side-effect - Kiriel will never need a different *main* focus/weapon - oh how I hate Monty Hall dungeons :-P)
Now to tie into the balance aspect, I'm very enthusiastic about soft-limits and responsive scripts. Soft-limits: The more powerful/unbalancing a thing is, the more opposition comes into play. I almost never *forbid* something. What I do instead is create a limiting or opposing force and let them work it out. Before you ever test its difficulty, you can already put in place soft limits that are softer/stiffer based on the progress (or lack there-of) of the PC. Which brings us to responsive scripts.
Redmokah mentioned testing for combat difficulty. There is another test you can set up; healing needed. Track how much damage your PC is taking. The more damage taken, the better/more powerful the rewards (*pertinent* rewards, where possible). Don't just drop random treasure, tailor it to your PCs progress. If they are getting bogged down (and probably frustrated) give them a breakthrough. If they are breezing through everything, stiffen the resistance (one of my favorite tricks is to steal a bunch of their stuff ;-).
Final note on motivation: Write stories :-) Play PnP as much as you can. I've been working on Amethyst for (sigh) three decades...
Whew. Haven't ranted so long in... a long time :-/
Pardon me.
<the phanatom pops with a sound suspiciously like a burp>
Modifié par Rolo Kipp, 27 mars 2011 - 01:04 .
