Re: [HOE] power gamers vs. roleplayers thread

[J23junior@aol.com]

 Hello- I'm new/old to the list (I was on a couple of years back, but dropped 
it when I went off to the fabulous University of Illinois in Urbana)

  There is one problem with basicly all the solutions to the problem 
presented- they are all combat based solutions to stopping combat based 
characters.  If I were one of the powergamers and you attempted to stop me by 
destroying me- I'd just try to make tougher and tougher combat characters.  
And if I were one of your roleplayers I'd just get more and more pissed that 
you were still doing combat and less story building.  The zen way to solving 
this problem is to take the path of least resistance- make combat easier 
instead of tougher. 

  The biggest (and I contend only) legitamate complaint a roleplayer can have 
about a powergamer in his/her group is the amount of time dedicated in a 
session to combat.  I've seen it plenty of times in pinnacle games- 5 minutes 
of real intense combat involving 10-12 characters can take up 6 hours- and 
that just blows.  The best way to resolve this is to devote less time to 
combat overall.  There are two quick ways to do this.  One, allow for less 
combat in a game.  This is a trivial solution I know- but it should at least 
be considered.  The second way to deal with this problem is to shorten combat 
and simplify it so combat situations can be resolved at roughly the same pace 
as roleplaying.  2-3 powergamer characters can level a half dozen common 
road-gangersd faster than they can down a six pack, so don't worry about 
simulating every little detail of it.  Adjust the rules so you can have 
"quick combat" rolls for trivial encounters.  If this starts to piss off the 
powergamers- just replace the dice rolling aspect of combat with a 
descriptive one- it makes the powergamers into roleplayers while still 
allowing them to do what they want to do (kick a**).  Of course you should 
run full combats for the big meanies (those of us who grew up on nintendo 
call them level bosses), but there are simpler engines in other games that 
allow combat to be resolved quicker than the pinnacle system.  As long as you 
counter most combats with an open ended roleplaying opportunity you should be 
able to keep everyone happy (after wasting a few gangers outside of a town, 
the posse finds a little girl beaten and dead.  Unless all your roleplayers 
are roleplaying heartless biz-nitches this is a roleplaying event to try and 
find the parents of the little girl).

   Now, to get them out of aattacking Denver- there are a few options.  To 
assult Denver they are going to need a lot of toys- force them to really 
search for everything they need (suppose an engine dies in one of their cars, 
make them go out into the wastes to find a V-6 that fits into the chassis of 
a pinto).  OR- you could make it in the interest of at least one of the 
powergamers to not go to Denver and instead do something else- like cure the 
mystery diesease he just caught from an unknown source in the marketplace.  
OR- maybe Ike could catch wind of the whole thing and ask them to stop.  Just 
a few ideas that involve roleplaying and not creatures/combat.