Setting Dominoes
WISH 57 asks if the system influences the play.
LintKing: My immediate thought is that this has a lot more to do with `genre' than `system'.
MaBarry: I've always said that setting up a character has to do with campaign mood, and that system helps create mood.
LK:Taking the obvious example of GURPS, I'll make a very different character for GURPS Fantasy as opposed to GURPS In Nomine, even though they're technically the same game system. On the other hand, my ideas for a Marvel Supers game versus, say, DC Heroes or V&V, come from a fairly similar source, even thought the three actually have very different mechanics.
For that matter, the Katie Karnage kon-game series was essentially a Supers game in the Amber system (and setting, come to think of it,) and Katie would fit in perfectly well in any supers system. {She comes to a fairly high point level translated to BESM, admittedly, but it IS about the point level suggested for a "high-powered supers" game, if I recall correctly, and that's what she was made for.)
That said, system DOES have an impact. I suppose the most dramatic difference comes between random generation and point-based systems. (I'm leaving out the purely descriptor-driven games because, personally, I hate that.) Random generation can have a huge impact on the kind of character you end up with, so I'll tend to go into that with little idea of what I want until after the dice are done. Afterall, if I decide ahead of time I want a genius and come out with a 5 Intelligence in an AD&D game...well, that's why they came up with all those options for making it a little less random. In point-based systems, on the other hand, it's impossible to even get started until you have at least the beginnings of a character concept in mind...
To start into the first example, then - I may have mentioned Molivus before. I don't know. He was my halfling thief in an AD&D game played just between Meera and myself. It's been several years, but if I recall correctly, we did the "4d6, drop the low die, roll six times and then assign them to stats" method. He still managed to get a three.
Naturally, I put it in Wisdom. Really, it's the only choice for a thief. Matched to a 16 intelligence, I wound up with somebody who could make very sharp decisions...if he had time to think about it. Faced with anything he could act on immediately, he did what seemed most interesting. He found a magic ring on a mage we killed, and put it on, only thinking afterwards that it might have been cursed. He jumped into a magic pool without a second thought. When a Lawful/Evil dragon offered us a chance to sample an unidentified potion "to see what it does," Molivus stepped right up...
Ring turned out to be Free Action. The pool...tingled, and I think that's all I ever knew of what it did. The potion increased his Dexterity. Meera rolled all of them up AFTER he'd taken the chance, and every time I was thinking, "Great...he's about to be turned into a frog." I've played impulsive characters in other systems, but nobody who would have rated less than a 6 or 7 Wisdom if you translated them over...
What's coming to mind for an example of a point-based system actually affecting how I approached the character is Tanzania, built in BESM. The aspect to the system that really came in from the beginning of the character is that it's so *OPEN*. She's a sorceress who turns into a barbarian hero when she's attacked, and the concept really built into a character quite simply from the thought, "Can I really DO that?"
I could *almost* do it in Marvel, I think, with the Ultimate Powers Book. I don't think I could do it in any other Supers game.
I might be able to force it in GURPS, with a hellacious amount of points and six or seven sourcebooks.
Could certainly do it in Over The Edge, but as I mentioned, I hate that kind of non-system.
I can't think of another game it would even be possible in, and none of those are especially plausible. In BESM, it was...easy. We recently figured out how to handle Demonic Contracts with BESM, though the GM said, "Very cool idea, but please don't." Really good necromancy DOES take a little bit of stretching, but it can be done (yes, Dave, that's probably a heads up, but don't worry - I won't have the points for at least a year). If I find something I really can't do with it, I'll let you know. (If anyone else has, let me know; I'd be curious.)
MaB: As a GM more than a player, I've always maintained that part of setting up the campaign has to do with how the players approach character creation. One of my stalling points for "Enemies" is that 1) I'm taking back everything I did to the system and using it straight, and 2) my character quiz is once again, fairly brutal. It's essential, yes, and I'm not quite done with it -- I need to tweak the last question a bit... but I actually design what system I want for character creation before almost anything else in the game.
Gentry Street is a break from that; in that case, I have more of an idea of what I want for the setting and story than what I want from PCs. That's going to make a great deal of difference in the way I give out the information.
On the other hand, as a player, system matters in the sense of the specialties even of my prototypes of characters I might play. In White Wolf I tend to play a little heavy on the magical side...whereas in the BESM campaign mentioned above, I'm playing kind of a little on the mundane side. Familiarity with the system certainly helps add complication to my characters. I'd be more comfortable building a mage in BESM under our current GM's rules than I was in the beginning.