thread: 2005-03-23 : Strong Stuff Indeed
On 2005-03-25, TonyLB wrote:
Vincent, I think I get what you're saying, but with all the varied opinions, it's hard to sort out for sure.
It's not about mechanical interaction, or rolling, or any of that stuff. It's about how you use the elements of your character to contribute to the game. If you can't use them to contribute to the game then they're a waste of space and mental energy.
But contributing does not necessarily mean having the character do something. When you have a "Kill anyone from any distance" power, not using it is doing something to the story. You, the player, are using that ability to contribute meaning, even though your character is, quite literally, doing nothing. You're using the ability to make your spectacular restraint more meaningful than the mere laziness of the other guys.
Matt Wagner did a wonderful comic book series called "Mage", wherein he gave a guy immense power, and the guy refused to use it. But the presence of the power, the opportunities he was passing up, all of that drew other people into an intricate web around him. To quote a character from the story: "While others all around you fight the battles and move the stones you belittle their achievements by your own clamorous inactivity."
I have had many, many characters who had combat skills that I used hundreds of times in every session. And I would argue that for many of them, those combat skills did absolutely nothing to allow me to contribute meaning to the story. I was participating, but not in any way authoring.
