Not Every Story Element Requires Mechanical Backup

Folks who are long-time readers know there are few things that make me happier than mechanical freedom. I talked about this in depth in Understanding The Difference Between Story Freedom and Mechanical Freedom, but the short version is that mechanical freedom is when the game rules create specific effects that back up your story explanation. If your story is that when you get enraged your strength increases, then you need a mechanic like the Rage class feature (or something similar) to make your story flavor a fact in the game world. If your story is that you're a prince, then something like the Noble background, or the Noble Scion feat, is kind of necessary to give that teeth. And so on, and so forth.

However, it's possible to take this concept too far. Which is why I wanted to take this week's installment to talk about how to judge whether an aspect of your character really needs mechanical backup, or if you can just say it exists, and move on with the game.

Because sometimes story really can stand on its own.

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Will This Affect The World Mechanically?

Game mechanics, generally speaking, serve a single, broad purpose in RPGs. In short, any time there is a conflict, the rules exist to mediate and resolve that conflict in a fair and balanced way. And if there is no conflict, then there's no need to get the rules involved.

Only roll the dice if success is in doubt.

It's also important to point out that when I say "conflict" I'm not just talking about fighting in RPGs. A conflict is, generally, whenever you want a certain action to happen and there is something attempting to stop that action from happening, so you need to use the mechanics to figure out which result happens. And sure, does my strike cleave the hobgoblin's head from his shoulders is an example of conflict. So is asking if you successfully persuade the merchant to show you his VIP goods, if you manage to sneak past the sleeping dragon, or successfully craft the enchanted blade you've been working on.

However, if there is no conflict, then you don't need the mechanics to be there. You can just make statements and let the story flow.

A simple example is saying you want your tiefling to have eyes like a goat. Or that your elf has green hair and a braided beard. Or your dwarf has sixteen children. These are just aspects of who they are, and the story you're telling. They don't really affect the mechanics of the world, but they fill in the blank spots and personalize your character and contribution to the story. And you should be coloring in those empty spaces... the problem is that a lot of us are looking for lines that aren't there when we start trying to fill in the gaps.

Don't Impose Limits That Aren't There

Lots of players and GMs look at rule books and feel overwhelmed by all the control the rules exert... but the rules are merely the physics of the world. They are the natural laws that govern the game. And though they are important (and often in our faces for a lot the nitty gritty parts of a campaign), it's important to make sure that what we think is a rule, and what is actually a rule line up. Because a lot of the time the rules as they're written don't actually impose as much control on the character you're making (or the story you're telling) as you might think.

For example, there's nothing in the rules that says your paladin must be a knight. Nothing says your rogue has to be a thief, or even a criminal of any sort. Nothing prevents your orc from being a wizard, or your dwarf from being a heavily-tattooed surfer from a volcanic island (more on that below). Your gnome can be of noble birth, your goblin can be a cleric of the goddess of beauty, and your drow could have been raised by adopted dwarf parents in a clan stronghold.

Unless there is an actual consequence of an aspect of your character (you need to have a certain Strength score to be believable as a champion arm wrestler, you must be at least a certain age in order to have experienced particular world events first-hand, etc.) you basically have carte blanche to fill in those blank spaces as long as your GM doesn't naysay you.

And, perhaps just as importantly, make sure you draw a distinction between what is purely flavor text, and what is mechanical function. Because if you want your sorcerer's magic missile to look like flaming skulls in Disney-villain green, there is no reason you can't do that. If you want your barbarian's Rage to manifest as a completely blank affect, becoming almost an automaton who feels no fear and shows no mercy, that doesn't change the morale bonus you receive, and it gives you a unique spin on how the mechanic looks for your character (and it's one of many options I discussed in 50 Shades of Rage).

Because rules are important when it comes to keeping the game fair, and making sure no one is getting special treatment. But we have a lot more freedom than we seem to think within those rules to define who our characters are, and to tell our stories round the table.

Also, Dwarves of Sundara is Out!

Before we go, I wanted to share the latest installment in my Sundara: Dawn of a New Age RPG setting... Species of Sundara: Dwarves is now out both for Pathfinder Classic and Dungeons and Dragons 5th Edition!

There are dangers in the deep... and across the whole of the world!

I'm going to be doing a deeper dive on this in an upcoming post (and hopefully giving folks a more focused look at how I'm changing up dwarves for my setting), but if you need a quick reason to give it a look, I'd say the Takatori should do it for you. These heavily-tattooed, volcano-dwelling dwarves were directly inspired by my old article Do Dwarves Surf? Tips For Diversifying Non-Human Fantasy Races. Perhaps one of the pieces that got me the most hate mail, I decided it was time to finally make those particular dwarves a reality!

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That's all for this week's Fluff post!

For more of my work, check out my Vocal archive, and stop by the YouTube channel Dungeon Keeper Radio. Or if you'd prefer to read some of my books, like my alley cat thriller Marked Territory, it's sequel Painted Cats, my sword and sorcery novel Crier's Knife or my recent short story collection The Rejects, then head over to My Amazon Author Page!

To stay on top of all my latest releases, follow me on Facebook, Tumblr, Twitter, and now Pinterest as well! To support my work, consider Buying Me a Ko-Fi, or heading to The Literary Mercenary's Patreon page to become a regular, monthly patron. That one helps ensure you get more Improved Initiative, and it means you'll get my regular, monthly giveaways as a bonus!

Players, Remember, Just Because You CAN Doesn't Mean You SHOULD

When you're playing an RPG, it can sometimes feel like you have nearly absolute freedom. You can be almost anyone, and do practically anything as long as its in accordance with the rules. If you want to play a grumpy, aging gnome barbarian who constantly thwacks people with his walker, that's totally an option! If you want to play a burgeoning elven sorcerer, a peppy halfling warlock, or a sour knight who's just here for the paycheck, there is nothing standing in your way.

Honor and glory? More like dental and retirement benefits.

The same thing applies to actions you take in the game world. Do you want to sneak into the goblin encampment and spirit away the treasure from right under the sentries' noses? Do you want to blast the oncoming horde of ogre warriors with fire and lightning? Do you want to broker a peace treaty between the orcs and the farmsteads, creating a mutually beneficial arrangement that will strengthen the community?

You can certainly try to do any of these things. And if you've got lucky dice, along with a good DM, you can probably pull them off.

However, a lot of the time players can take that freedom a step too far. So before you go haring off into the wilderness, I'd like to ask all the folks out there to keep something in mind when tinkering with the engine; just because something is a legal, mechanical option, that doesn't mean you should pursue it.

Ask How This Benefits You, And Your Concept?

While it's all fine and good to talk about favoring story and roleplaying over mechanics, the facts are that you're still playing a game, and a game has rules. There are going to be certain decisions that make your character better at some things, and worse at others. And while it's true that you don't need to have a completely optimized character to have fun with them, it is important to understand the consequences your choices can have when it comes to your character, and their abilities.

Example time!

 

All right, let's say you're playing Pathfinder Classic, and you want to put together a dwarven sorcerer. You know that a sorcerer's magic is derived from their Charisma, and that as a race dwarves take a -2 to that score. So even if you roll top stats, the best you can manage to start with is a 16. With point buy, you're going to wind up with a lot less, unless you're willing to tank all your other attributes.

Now, do you need an inhumanly high Charisma score to play an effective sorcerer? No, but as I mentioned in No One Wins When You Build A Stupid Wizard, the game's rules are written with the assumption that you're building your characters to be good at things. Having a middling casting stat might not remove your use entirely, but it is going to leave you feeling frustrated when you can't get your enemies to fail their saving throws, or when you don't have access to higher-level spells despite your level (assuming you haven't been able to boost your attributes high enough to cast spells of that level by the time you gain access to them).

These are the challenges you face, and it's your job as a player to figure out how to deal with these challenges. Now, the easy solution is to just play a different race, but that isn't exactly necessary. For example, the Empyreal bloodline allows your sorcerer to cast off of Wisdom rather than Charisma, which is a score dwarves actually get a bonus to. This gives you all the power and benefits of an ideal stat, and lets you keep the class/race combo you started out with. Alternatively, your character could also be an aasimar descended from dwarves, giving them a dwarven appearance but with the traits of these native outsiders (something that cropped up quite a lot in 100 Unusual Aasimar, for those who are interested), which includes a +2 to Charisma as well as a +2 to Wisdom. Or you could stick with a standard dwarven sorcerer, and focus on spells that don't rely on your Charisma modifier for their effectiveness. Spells that buff and protect your allies, for example, rather than a blaster focused on damaging foes.

Wait... what were we talking about?

 

The overall point is that your actions have consequences in an RPG. If your PC starts a fight with the bouncer in the tavern, a possible result is that they get the crap beaten out of them by the retired monk, and the party gets evicted from the bar. And if you choose to squander your resources, or to invest in abilities that just aren't going to be that helpful, the result is often that your character becomes more of a hindrance than a help to their fellow party members.

What Are You Going To Do With It, Once You Have It?

A perfect example of mixing two things because you can comes up when players try out multiclassing. Certain classes just work well together, and offer a lot of synergy. Rogue/barbarian is one of my favorites from 5 Barbarian Multiclass Concepts Your Table Won't See Coming, since your abilities neatly play into each other. A paladin with a dip into swashbuckler can be quite powerful, since both classes rely on a high Charisma score, and you can even get some mileage out of combining ranger and fighter to boost your combat prowess.

Other class combinations though... well, they don't really work out all that well.

The druid/bard just... wasn't thought through all that well.

 

As an example of this, consider the wizard/monk. Can you do this? Sure, but what does it get you? The monk already needs a high Strength, Dexterity, and Wisdom score (barring focusing entirely on Dexterity for attacks, combat maneuvers, etc.), and now you're going to add in a need for a high Intelligence as well? Wizards get a very slow base attack bonus progression, and monks are on a less-than-full advancement path to begin with. You lose out on spell progression, and don't really gain any useful abilities to make up for what you're losing. And you're stuck with a lawful alignment to boot.

So what you end up with is sort of a mess that becomes less and less able to tackle the challenges appropriate to their level. Especially when you consider that a wizard who takes the feats Eschew Materials and Improved Unarmed Strike, and leads a life of contemplation and training could have the air of a monk (as well as the fashion sense of one), and still be a much more effective character. You could even flavor your somatic components as full-body kata, if you wanted, and make it into a big, esoteric tradition of warrior mages. There's even an unarmed magus archetype that would play into this style, if you did want to punch things with magic. Either option gives you all the aesthetic, with none of the mechanical drawbacks that the aforementioned multiclassing would stick you with.

Mastery of transmutation comes with many side benefits.

 

Whatever resource you're spending, whether it's feats, skill points, class levels, etc., you should always ask yourself what you're going to do with it. How is it going to benefit your character, and the party? Because the fighter taking the feat Exotic Weapon Proficiency to wield a bastard sword in one hand so they can use a shield in the other makes total sense. A magus doing the same thing, allowing them to use the huge blade to deliver spellstrikes also make total sense. But what does the wizard gain from doing that? Or the monk? What do you get from putting a handful of points into Sleight of Hand, or Handle Animal, when that task never once falls to you?

Can you do these things? Of course you can, they're legal under the game rules. But before you do, ask yourself what you're going to do with the resources you just spent. How do they impact your character, and what will they add to your repertoire? Because a barbarian who can identify spells is useful, and a druid with contacts in the city's underworld can be an asset... but a paladin who spent points so they could weave baskets really isn't going to help barring an extremely unlikely crafting challenge from the Prince of the Sixth Circle.

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That's all for this week's Moon Pope Monday. Hopefully you enjoyed, and if you've used run these kinds of games before, leave us a comment to let us know what worked for you!

For more of my work, check out my Vocal and Gamers archives, and stop by the YouTube channel Dungeon Keeper Radio. Or if you'd prefer to read some of my books, like my sword and sorcery novel Crier's Knife, then head over to My Amazon Author Page!

To stay on top of all my latest releases, follow me on Facebook, Tumblr, Twitter, and now Pinterest as well! To support my work, consider Buying Me a Ko-Fi, or heading to The Literary Mercenary's Patreon page to become a regular, monthly patron. That one helps ensure you get more Improved Initiative, and it means you'll get my regular, monthly giveaways as a bonus!