(06-29-2015, 07:49 AM)Magellan Wrote: I guess my confusion lies in the picking and choosing of OOC mechanics. Â To me, if someone looks at my character and says 'lvl 50 monk.', then they should also be saying 'lvl 9 conjurer. Lvl 43 bard. Lvl 34 dragoon.'
Which forces upon me a degree of power and Mary Sueism I frankly don't want. But. .. lvl matters, right?
Additionally, I should RP that I have 2 retainers, behemoth and magitek mounts, 2 dozen minions- should I RP all the times I died while leveling?
Oh god.. Â are we all just zombies and Eorzea is actually an apocalyptic world?
We all pick and choose what OOC mechanics we follow and how much of the game's story we weave into our own; a great example is ignoring the fact that the mechanical day-night cycle is greatly accelerated. I don't know of anyone who RPs that the day in Eorzea is only 72 minutes long. It doesn't follow, in my mind, that choosing to ignore some OOC mechanics means you must also ignore all of them, nor that the converse is true. The choice isn't binary.
In the poll, I voted level "sometimes matters" for two reasons. One, it's a quick and dirty measure of power that can be applied when there's no other alternatives. When would this matter? As Lililove noted, if some random level 1 tough starts making threats against my character with no OOC discussion or prearrangement, she's simply not going to take him seriously. It's a filter, more or less, against random assertions of power. Communication, as always, is key; I have no problem with a level 1 antagonist being super-scary if we have that discussion first.
Two, for those of us who RP the progression of our characters in expertise over time, it serves as a sort of benchmark for our own character's power. I never RP my character having any real expertise in an area where she has no, or few, levels. I RP her highest level and most practiced class as where her primary combat expertise lies. For L'yhta, that's thaumaturgy. This is a personal benchmark, mind you, not a way to say that she's more powerful than other thaumaturges that are lower level than she is. Level and the abilities that come with it also give me a benchmark of the boundaries of power for a class and how they expand as a character grows.
Now, when we're talking about things like dueling and rolling, while I like a level modifier as a way of showing relative expertise between characters, I have no issue with falling back on "superhero balance logic" and saying that everyone who asserts some expertise is balanced enough that chance is the defining factor (in fact, this is the core mechanic on which the Tower's Story Engine game system operates). However, that's a courtesy I extend when we have some discussion about exactly what's going on. I'm not going to concede to flat /random in an arcanima drawing contest when the opposition RPs a Doman merchant with no magical knowledge, just as I wouldn't deign to ask for that in a sword-and-board fight with no magic involved when the fight's between L'yhta and a trained gladiator. Instead, I would just lose, since that's the correct result given the situation.
My larger point is that level, to me, does have a place in our understanding of the world. I suppose this comes from my tabletop RPG experience, where no one would RP a 15th level fighter if they wanted to be terrible in a fight, or throw 10 points in Dexterity + Brawl on a Brujah and RP that they've never thrown a punch and know nothing of combat. The mechanics of the game don't cover everything, but they do, I think, matter, at least to some degree.
The Freelance Wizard
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((about me | about L'yhta Mahre | L'yhta's desk | about Mysterium, the Ivory Tower: a heavy RP society of mages))
Quality RP at low, low prices!
((about me | about L'yhta Mahre | L'yhta's desk | about Mysterium, the Ivory Tower: a heavy RP society of mages))
