Fed II Star newsletter - masthead The weekly newsletter for the Fed II game by ibgames

EARTHDATE: March 12, 2006

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STAR CHAMBER
by Freya

Power-Gaming

Last week I talked about role-playing and I used the term "power-gaming". A couple of people weren't sure what I meant by that, so this week I am going to talk about what power-gaming is, and why it's a bad thing that stifles creative free form role-playing.

Power-gaming is something that happens when someone creates a godlike character or a character that is good at everything he/she does - the character tends to do everything better than everyone else in the game and supplies your response to his/her actions. This is boring and annoying.

Power-gaming is often found in free form role-playing more than others because free form doesn't have the limits placed on characters that other systems do. What happens is that a player makes an all-powerful character and sends him/her around generally doing whatever the player wants to. Other players don't tend to appreciate this and many times an episode of power-gaming ends up with the power-gamer leaving the game or all of the other players ignoring them.

Since free form role-playing doesn't have a "Dungeon Master" or system-imposed limits, the players must police themselves. Some may say that is restricting IC and not allowing them to role-play truly freely, but some sort of system of rules or simple recommendations usually needs to be put in place to try to prevent power-gamers from popping up. In Fed II, regardless of what sort of character you create or how you choose to role play, you are always subject to Fed II and IBgames rules. "I was just role-playing" is never a legit excuse for offence. You may think it could be fun to have an all-powerful character, but usually the opposite is true; having a somewhat true-to-life character who has advantages and weaknesses together will make a more interesting and fun character to play and for other players to associate their characters with.

Some examples of power-gaming vs free form role-playing, the first one using the command to buy drinks for players:

P-G: Ghouldroid buys you a pint of Flaming Dungeon, a powerful mix of fire, brimstone, and 151 proof rum. You gulp it down in one go and flames shoot out of your nostrils, steam jets out of your ears and your head spins around.
FFRP: Ghouldroid buys you a pint of Flaming Dungeon, a powerful mix of fire, brimstone, and 151 proof rum, buyer beware!

The free-form version is a much better alternative.

Two examples of power-gaming using the mood command:

You fall to your knees in devotion as Gormlessdroid has entered the room.
You feel faint as the mighty, all-powerful Gormlessdroid has left the room

Here's how not to use the act command:

Clueless raises his Wand of Power and zaps everyone in the room. You find yourself floating up to the ceiling.

A better alternative:

Clueful removes a Wand of Power from his battered backpack and begins to buff it gently with the sleeve of his gown.
Clueful says, "Would anyone care to test the power of my Wand?"
Clueful eyes the open trapdoor in the ceiling, smiles and winks roguishly.

Fundamentally power-gaming is NON-CONSENSUAL and above all else, Fed II is a consensual game. Power gaming is disrespectful to fellow players and imposes your idea of fun on people who may not only not want to play along, but may actually be embarrassed or distressed by it. The object of role playing should be for everyone to have fun.

Power gaming tends to close off creative, imaginative possibilities for response since the power-gamer has already supplied the response. It also limits the power-gamer to their planned scenario. It prevents the whole world of delightful possibilities that free form role playing can provide. In the end, power-gaming is not fun and it sours many players on any role playing at all.


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