Dealing with Identical PCs
First, an apology for the lack of update Friday. I had thought the server was set to automatically post the article Friday morning, but I made an error saving the post, and thus it was never posted. Here is the post from Friday. Normal posting will resume tomorrow.
No matter how much diversity any game offers, whether class and level based or point based, the problem identical PCs will eventually crop up. There are several circumstances under which people are likely to generate identical PCs, and several degress to which they can be “identical.”
The most common place to see identical PCs is at low level or in low power games, where the characters haven’t had as much time to diversify and “bloom.” The best solution in this case can be to simply wait, and give the characters time to develop, in personality and character development as well as on paper.
Some players come to the table with similar concepts for their characters in mind, which leads to similar character building or execution. If this is the case, try to emphasize the little differences in the characters, especially the ones that don’t make a difference as far as rules and game mechanics. If two characters are wielding two different swords that are near identical, place them in a role-playing situation where the differences are seen as important, either due to a fighting tradition which glamorizes one, or the weapon has some symbolic importance based in religion or myths.
Some players will purposefully build characters which are very similar, often creating a reason for this in their characters backgrounds, such as being siblings, or trained by the same teacher or order. If this is the case, you may wish to offer the players an extra bonus for this, because even if the mechanics don’t suggest it, two duelists/slashers/casters acting as a team or in tandem should be more effective than the two of them separately. Of course, this bonus shouldn’t be offered all the time (unless the mechanics normally call for it.)
Another common place to find identical PCs is among spell casters who are able to learn and teach new spells. PCs who wield magic with this kind of mechanic will often share spells freely with each other, in order to benefit the party. Try offering your players a way to specialize in different ways. If necessary, rule that only a certain number of spells or spells per level may be known by any caster - this will encourage them to learn different abilities in the interests of versatility.
Universally, the best way to deal with identical PCs is through role-playing. No matter how identical PCs may be on paper, they will almost certainly have different personalities, inclinations, mannerisms, and beliefs. Shining a light on this makes characters unique and special, and provides players with a reason not to min/max, another common cause of identical PCs because of bottle necking.
How do you deal with identical PCs?
PCs versus Players
In Wednesday’s post, I discussed my Personal Rules for Narrating, and Uncle Dark pointed out that I was making a series of distinctions between the players themselves, the characters, and the party, though these distinctions were not made clear. Today, I thought I would correct this by explaining.
The Players. The Players themselves make up the core of any game, and without them the game obviously cannot exist: solitaire without a player is just a deck of cards. When Players come to any game, they have a set of expectations, not only for what the game will be like, but also how they would like the game to play out. In RPGs, these expectations will usually take the form of goals for their characters and the setting.
The Characters. Without the Players, the Characters are little more than pieces of paper and empty concepts. Characters are as essential to an RPG as the Players themselves, as the Characters are both the vehicle of the story and the game itself. In role-playing games and games where the player is introduced to their character over a period of time, it is not uncommon to discover that the goals of the Player and the goals of the Character are not one and the same, often due to a lack of knowledge about the other.
In most games, Players have two ways of playing their Characters:
- As Their Characters. Playing as a Character means that the Player has assumed the role of that Character, and the game is played as the Character would play it out and react to situations. Playing as a Character in this fashion may be considered role-playing, even if it is unaccompanied by role-acting.
- For Their Characters. Playing for a Character means that the Player is playing the game and participating in it in while not focusing primarily on how their character would react. This type of play is often passive, and can be found while playing video games, and in the behavior of many veteran role-players who have discovered that their play experience is not enriched by further role-playing in some situations, and that the outcome of many mundane situations is not altered by constant role-playing.
How will the goals differ for a Player/Character between these two modes of play?
A Player playing as their Character focuses primarily on the goals of the Character, and during actual play place their personal goals for the Character or the game at a lower priority than any in-game goals their Character might have. The immediate rewards of this type of play are often focused on the Character, while the long-term rewards are often focused around the experience of playing itself.
A Player playing for their Character will play often with their own personal goals as a Player placed first over those of the Character in-game. The immediate rewards of this type of play are often focused around the Player, and character rewards and goals, if in existence, will most likely be identical to those of the Player.
Why are these distinctions are important? The Player who plays as their Character has placed an amount of trust in the game and, by extension in RPGs, the Narrator who runs it. The Player trusts the game to be a rewarding experience simply through play itself, and that the game will meet any additional goals the Player may have had, either for themselves as a Player, the game itself, or even another Player or Character within the game.
Everyone has goals, Player, Character, or Narrator, and meeting the goals of each, both as a whole and on an individual basis, ensures play will be a success,
