ffilz
Legendary Pubber
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- Dec 17, 2018
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Character build combined with tactical RPG combat does raise a risk of basically arena combat (interesting that Paragon just mentioned In The Labyrinth which of course started as the arena games of Melee and Wizard). D&D 3.x brought this style of play to D&D.
I have never found power gaming to be a problem in RuneQuest because it has a good enough combat system to make the power gaming choices interesting, but it ALSO has enough role play hooks that most of the players I have had have engaged with the role play as much as the combat. My college Cold Iron gaming was pretty combat heavy, yet it was still fun, but one thing is that it's magic item/treasure system encourages strategic choices as well as tactical choices. The combats were also hung on just enough of a campaign/role playing framework to keep it from being an arena game.
But really the problems that arise from any of these play styles really do come back to the GM and players and how they work together (or don't).
I have never found power gaming to be a problem in RuneQuest because it has a good enough combat system to make the power gaming choices interesting, but it ALSO has enough role play hooks that most of the players I have had have engaged with the role play as much as the combat. My college Cold Iron gaming was pretty combat heavy, yet it was still fun, but one thing is that it's magic item/treasure system encourages strategic choices as well as tactical choices. The combats were also hung on just enough of a campaign/role playing framework to keep it from being an arena game.
But really the problems that arise from any of these play styles really do come back to the GM and players and how they work together (or don't).