Character Concepts (Read 1st Post)

[Travisc06489]

Oh I know. But he will lose cuz he just wasn't strongly designed combatant.

[West]

Let's be clear here:

I never said anything about min-maxing. I'm not a hypocrite. I said it was obvious you were planning to Skill twink with Mind (which has it's own pitfalls) and that wasn't a criticism. I simply pointed out that you had a stat that wasn't going to work well with your plan.

I'm going to bow out of this convo now, because it's clear you're taking some of what I said as criticism when that wasn't the intent.

[Brownlee]

Hey, Travisc06489 . This is me speaking as a player, not an ST--Mage isn't my lane and I know it.

West started on this site with Mage six years ago. Your getting defensive is not his loss, but yours, as you cease to benefit from the back-and-forth this thread is designed for.

Since he's opted to bow out, I'll pick up where he left off. Optimization might also be thought of as handicap in almost every other area. You limit the ways you can play to dominate in a single facet of play. While this may not be illegal, it can be distasteful. You run the risk of outshining or bullying new and even seasoned characters who wanted to engage in play in various ways. This bullying is, perhaps, what you feel you've experienced in Vampire, and--as you can see--promotes reactionary overcompensation in the rolling of a new character, which can turn a roleplay environment into a competitive one and cause major inflation in the power economy of a venue. (There is no malice in these thoughts, as I don't think there was any in West's--we veterans tend to be blunt, as you well know.) Inevitably, there is the possibility that you can become bored in the ways that you've limited yourself, or that your peers will get bored with you. Since these are legitimate dangers that could detract from everyone's experience, they seem worth mentioning in a platform that invites such mention.

Obviously the dangers are not a certainty, and execution far outweighs conception, but I think you'd do well to listen to guys who've been around the block here, have seen hundreds of characters come and go, and have yours and the community's best interests at heart, before rejecting their comments or slighting them.

[Travisc06489]

Causing all this chaos was never my intention. Please allow me to assume responsibility for the miscommunication. My intents are aligned with the purpose of this thread: I am interested in fleshing out a mage that is both mechanically competent and an interesting individual. I've taken suggestions into consideration and will submit a revision for further review. If you will allow it, of course.

[Benji]

Yes, my comment on min/maxing wasn't a bash on the idea of min/maxing, but in the way it was done. It was obviously done to maximize your skill stacking rote at the expense of actual skill dots your concept would reasonably be expected to rely upon. It very much appears to be a character sheet that you built for mechanical a goal which you then tried to tie a very loose concept to after the fact.

That stuff stands out like a beacon, as you can see. I've done it myself, to pretty much the same reaction from West others.

[Travisc06489]

i think I will pause my Mage production, for now. Since I've only just immersed myself in a brand new venue (to me, Ling) it might give me a headache to plunge headfirst into another. Plus Michael has been dead all of 3 minutes and I already miss Vamp. But the Mage day will come!

[Benji]

I have two pieces of interlocking advice to share and they apply across all the games, not just mage

Don't rely on gimmicks to cultivate interest in your character

Be aware of how your mechanics work in game

Gimmicks are fine - Star has cards, Weavebreker has dispelling, Miach has healing, Einstein has an Ego, Gyges has his Adversary thing. Your toon has to be rounded outside that gimmick, otherwise they come off as That Creepy Guy You Know Who Only Is Interested In That One Thing And Becomes Sullen When Something Else Is The Topic Of Discussion.

No one wants to interact with a TCGYKWOIIITOTABSWSEITTOD. Fact. They always get shunted off to the sidelines of the social scene and either burn out or just remain irrelevant for their duration in play.

You know what? Read 6 Harsh Truths that will make you a Better Person. It applies equally as much to the pretend people we all write as it does to Real Life.

As for mechanics, you have to know how the system works RAW and with any house rules here if you want to do something using them. There are just too many players for the ST to devote time to making custom merits/powers/rules for someone's gimmick. Someone wants to make an army of robots? Maybe they want to create a network of safe houses connected by portals? Immortality? There's rules for all of these things, but they aren't cheap. They cost xp to pursue and maintain and some of them have serious IC drawbacks.

If you want to play a councilor-based role, why not just play that without the RPG gimmick layer on top of it? Just meet people, be a good friend to them and help them work through their issues.

[West]

Im always curious what spirit focused player characters ate gonna do. Mostly because a lot of them want to swan around to talk to All The Spirits and create their own Barlowes Guide.

[Cayce]

Also, here's two interesting phrases that I've ran across in literature (Note, this does not come from any actual studies of pedagogy or education, but fiction). The first is: the best teacher teaches not through the answering of questions, but by asking them (kinda socratic, me thinks). Second, the best teacher is one who can teach in silence...

So, in addition to these, maybe think about how you imagine your character approaching their teaching. No two teachers are the same, unless they're more like brainwashers or indoctrinators, after all.