To Be, or Not to Be
Too much thinking lately, not really enough to do. All things considered, though, I can't say I'm doing badly. Our Web department hasn't annoyed me too much this last week (though they still exist on a wavelength that makes it difficult to communicate) and life is plodding along.
The new rules for Furryfaire that were conceptualized... uh... some time back (six months ago? Eight months ago? A year ago?) are finally seeing code. I'm trying to be positive about it, so I'll start by saying I do appreciate all the thought and effort that has gone/is going into the changes. It looks like it may curb some of the power issues we had before.
That said, it's hard to be positive about it. It bothers me a little that I've a character who currently could probably go tossing buses like Superman, but after the new rules are finished - not so much. Even that, though, is just a matter of scale. Stats, skills, etc... all those numbers are going to be lower across the board. So it goes. What really eats at me is that this creates a sudden shift in the dynamics of the setting.
I could still roll well on a strength check, even with lower numbers. My character who was based from concept on supernatural abilities is getting hosed. She can't afford half of the powers she had before, and they generally aren't as good. The only reason she got away with some things she did was an ability to adapt and become near-invulnerable to anything but basic physical damage and she handled that well. It let her stand up to an overzealous (and statistically more powerful) subordinate, and it let her play rough-and-tumble with threats that would otherwise have outclassed her. For as much as she could take, though, she actually wasn't one of the characters who could one-shot anything in their way. With the new system, she wouldn't have same variety of resitances and it wouldn't be nearly as absolute. And I haven't even really tried to adapt my magic-based character yet - magic's been toned way down.
But y'know, to a large degree, that's what the system needed to be balanced. Some of those powers, magics, psionics and whatnot could destroy cities (as one character proved). This was not good for the setting - but it was the setting. Now, suddenly, everything is going to change. I had decided some time back that some things needed to be toned down for a reasonably stable world, but I also reached the conclusion that doing so didn't fit Furryfaire as it has been and it'd be better applied to a new/reset world. It's like picking up the latest issue of Superman and seeing him struggle to lift a car or limited to running instead of flying, with no in-world explanation. No sense of continuity there.
So, in all my thinking of late, I'm trying to decide if it's worth it. It would be easiest to just retire my most-affected characters. I'd been thinking of doing that with one for other reasons anyway. Maybe I'd make a new, starting-level, character. Maybe not as I have a couple whose concepts are way less sheet-dependent. Either way, I'd be out of the ranks of "players with uber-characters" (which, one could argue, I will be anyway if I try to convert them). Yet I do have some attachment to these characters after the last... year and a half? It's not a simple, painless choice to make.
The new rules for Furryfaire that were conceptualized... uh... some time back (six months ago? Eight months ago? A year ago?) are finally seeing code. I'm trying to be positive about it, so I'll start by saying I do appreciate all the thought and effort that has gone/is going into the changes. It looks like it may curb some of the power issues we had before.
That said, it's hard to be positive about it. It bothers me a little that I've a character who currently could probably go tossing buses like Superman, but after the new rules are finished - not so much. Even that, though, is just a matter of scale. Stats, skills, etc... all those numbers are going to be lower across the board. So it goes. What really eats at me is that this creates a sudden shift in the dynamics of the setting.
I could still roll well on a strength check, even with lower numbers. My character who was based from concept on supernatural abilities is getting hosed. She can't afford half of the powers she had before, and they generally aren't as good. The only reason she got away with some things she did was an ability to adapt and become near-invulnerable to anything but basic physical damage and she handled that well. It let her stand up to an overzealous (and statistically more powerful) subordinate, and it let her play rough-and-tumble with threats that would otherwise have outclassed her. For as much as she could take, though, she actually wasn't one of the characters who could one-shot anything in their way. With the new system, she wouldn't have same variety of resitances and it wouldn't be nearly as absolute. And I haven't even really tried to adapt my magic-based character yet - magic's been toned way down.
But y'know, to a large degree, that's what the system needed to be balanced. Some of those powers, magics, psionics and whatnot could destroy cities (as one character proved). This was not good for the setting - but it was the setting. Now, suddenly, everything is going to change. I had decided some time back that some things needed to be toned down for a reasonably stable world, but I also reached the conclusion that doing so didn't fit Furryfaire as it has been and it'd be better applied to a new/reset world. It's like picking up the latest issue of Superman and seeing him struggle to lift a car or limited to running instead of flying, with no in-world explanation. No sense of continuity there.
So, in all my thinking of late, I'm trying to decide if it's worth it. It would be easiest to just retire my most-affected characters. I'd been thinking of doing that with one for other reasons anyway. Maybe I'd make a new, starting-level, character. Maybe not as I have a couple whose concepts are way less sheet-dependent. Either way, I'd be out of the ranks of "players with uber-characters" (which, one could argue, I will be anyway if I try to convert them). Yet I do have some attachment to these characters after the last... year and a half? It's not a simple, painless choice to make.
It is never easy to make any sort of absolute choice about character we've taken time and investment into making 'alive' or 'real' for us. I agree the sudden toning down in the paradigm doesn't have any plausibility, but so it goes. The game will always adapt to the new, and tend to create a rift between those that've been around for a while and those just packing it in. What could you/should you do? Up to you, ultimately. Will your friends be there, regardless of the character you make and play? Yes. Will they interact with your character? I know some will bend their concepts to. I know I'm making characters do -things- to promote RP simply because the majority of the players there don't care or I feel aren't the best for the task (Like that mayoral election). So it goes. To me, Faire has gone from it's infancy and into it's adolesence. It is a wild and rebellious child who's grown beyond it's parent's ability to curb and control and is fighting for an identity. One could leave. Wash their hands of the dirty affair that things have become, say, "Thanks for the time, but it's time I move on." and try to walk out with a cleaner concious, free from the tasks and burdens placed upon you. Your friends, if they are your friends, will respect and support that descision, if it becomes your descision. Do what you have to do to make -you- the person happy. That's really all that matters.
ReplyDelete