I recently unloaded some boxes of books for my new abode that included a copy of the Dungeoneer's Survival Guide ($2 second hand - worth every cent, but no more). At the end it has some tips about how to run a good game, that divides players into 3 groups: - Adventurers This is defined as the folks who like to use the attributes of their characters to solve problems, whether it be a high BAB, high skill score or weapon with many pluses. They enjoy raising and supplementing said attributes, and enjoy combat as the best situation to show off such qualities. If you like the fights, worry about optimised builds or do lots of crafting, this might be you. - Problem Solvers These are folks who enjoy puzzles and thinking, and who also enjoy coming up with creative solutions to problems. If you enjoy the puzzles to the extent tht you positively have to finish every single quest no matter what the alignment connotations, if you always want new spells and such to try, and have a streak of the rules lawyer (to push things to their limits) this might be you. - Role Players Enough said, really, except since ToEE lacks the chance to create elaborate backgrounds, this might be you if you design your character down to being very particular about what colour boots and gloves they have, and if you often read the dialogues thinking "thats not quite what my character would say!" So - to help us better make mods for our audience, and just for the sheer heck of it, what sort of player are you? I think I am quite squarely in the problem-solving mode.
Being ex-military, I like using my specialists to get the job done. Being an ex-engineer and a mathematician, I love problem-solving. I love well fleshed-out, quirky npc's (Jaheira and Minsc), but don't need to be one. Ultimately, I wouldn't play the game if there was no combat, so I picked Adventurer. IMHO, you need 3 more options: adventurer-probsolver, etc. or allow multiple selections.
First and foremost I am a min/maxer and I'm not ashamed of it. I enjoy the tactical portion of crafting a character and solving problems, and fights with them. My first video game love was always strategy games. HOWEVER, I'm what you might call a mature min/maxer. I know the system, I sometimes push it, but at the end of the day I enjoy dialogue, doing quests and honestly - the aesthetics of my characters. I'm very OC about the themes of my characters, and if something is wrong I get irritated. I actually try to match hair color, build, and accessories/clothing/armor to the character portrait. That said, I won't use certain (superior) armor/weapons if they don't match the look and background of the character. I also purposely make weak characters a lot of the time, to test my skill and resolve in combat. Like going from rogue into illusionist, which isn't much of a power build in this game but it approximates an assassin better than a straight up rogue.
I went with Adventurer as I'd say I lean most strongly in that direction. I probably should have pick Ballance, but I figured it would be more helpful statiscly speaking to select one of the 3. I have a background story and resulting character traits for every PC in every party I create, and I enjoy problem solving but I also tend to specialize each character and do best to build up their spceality and support it with equipment. Cuchulainn.
I am an adventurer through and through. I like to get many magical items, weapons and armor and the beat the crap out of some monsters!
At least we're not cursed by any of those darn role players Alignment be damned - +5 weapons for everyone! :yes:
I chose balance. Some days I want to cleverly craft a party machine that would make Mayor Daley drool in envy. Some days I chose the options I think the character would take. But some days, like after a hard day at work, I want to console in more weaponry than a Quentin Tarantino movie and paint the dungeon red. BTW, GA82, there is no such thing as an "ex-engineer", unless you used to drive a train thearioch -- I like solving problems, so I am a mathematician and an engineer
Well thats exactly where role-players would assert themselves: designing their PCs down to the boots, gloves, cloaks and headgear (things that, unless magical, have no bearing on the game, so an encumberance minded adventurer-type might just throw them all away altogether). In any case, if we have role-players here, they can still speak up, and we can keep them in mind when making later mods.
Ahem, my pants are not "puffy". heh heh I think the Co8 mods have added quite a lot of role-playing to this game. The fact that I can sober up a certain town drunk...(RP). I can choose to help out a certain Desperate Housewife...(RP). A role-player can find all kinds of ways to play out the role he's chosen when experiencing Co8's version of TOEE. And again...RP=2/3 of RPG. :Being_a_s