If the system makes combat super-deadly, your group should be avoiding fights, and a character who is only specialized in killing things won't be very active. If the system rewards heroic behavior, that is important to know when you make a character. You certainly need to know the character creation and advancement rules. If you are making a combatant, you need to know the combat rules. If you are making a wizard, you need to know the magic rules. Practical Optimization is a rules exercise, and it cannot be separated from the rules. Maybe you don’t need to know all the rules for the entire game system you are playing (although it helps), but you must at least master the rules surrounding your concept. It inhibits good roleplaying when your character cannot mechanically carry out his concept. It supports good roleplaying when you can do what your concept was intended to do. On the other hand, designing an interesting concept that you want to play and then figuring out the rules on how to make that concept work is an example of optimization supporting roleplay.Īs a wise person once said, “You can’t roleplay when your character is dead”. Building a freakish monstrosity of rules-effectiveness for which you don’t have the faintest idea how it would act could be optimization opposing roleplay. Optimization can be, but is not necessarily, in opposition to good roleplay. Designing the clever combination of powers and gear from 8 different sourcebooks that will make you supremely effective at your job is advanced optimization. Picking effective weapons and spells is a little more advanced. Most people will do this without realizing that they are optimizing. Having a melee fighter with a high strength, or a caster with a high casting stat is basic PO. Practical Optimization runs a wide spectrum. If I wanted to make a character who was really good at a skill (like acrobatics, or computers), or who was effective in play despite some unusual or sub optimal skill choice (like an unusual race, or a weak class, or a less than desired allocation of physical or mental abilities), these are all applications of Practical Optimization. These goals are usually some variation of combat power, flexibility, or survivability (there is a lot of synergy between these three). Practical Optimization usually involves building a character towards one or more goals. It is different from Theoretical Optimization (TO) in that the goal of Practical Optimization is to build a character for use in a game, whereas Theoretical Optimization is the intellectual exercise of building a rules-legal but bizarre (usually vastly powerful) character. Practical Optimization (PO) is the technique of using the rules of a given game system to make a character more effective. I will sometimes refer to D&D 3.5, because that is the system that most posters are familiar with, but my intention is to include such systems as GURPS, Old or New WoD, Rolemaster, etc. I intend for this guide to cover the basic ideas behind optimization in any rules intensive system. A Systemless Guide to Practical Optimization
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