And lets not forget that PFS is rather lethal. You kind of need a super-optimized character just to live through it.
The 'tacticalization' of the game using maps and minis as the focus instead of story and RP'ing is likely another huge contributor to this. It has lead to more of a board game atmosphere in many ways.
That being said, I love maps and minis and I try hard not to powergame my characters, and so that cannot be the whole picture.
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And lets not forget that PFS is rather lethal. You kind of need a super-optimized character just to live through it.
No.
If you believe the above, then either your sampling of PFS is extremely non-representative, or your idea of what constitutes "super-optimized" is simply wrong.
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On a separate note, there seem to be a lot of folks who think "optimized" means "focuses on dealing lots of damage at the expense of all else". (This error seems to be mostly made by people who don't identify as optimizers themselves.) Buy a dictionary, people. If you're looking at a character that's nothing but a mindless DPR machine that's worthless whenever he faces something that won't stand still and let him full-attack it, you are not looking at an optimized character.
Please stop conflating "optimized" (which literally means "well-made") with "specialized for nothing but damage with no flexibility". I share your wrath against the latter, but it's folly to direct that wrath at the former. They are separate groups.
And lets not forget that PFS is rather lethal. You kind of need a super-optimized character just to live through it.No.
If you believe the above, then either your sampling of PFS is extremely non-representative, or your idea of what constitutes "super-optimized" is simply wrong.
I assumed that was sarcasm due to PFS's rather infamous reputation for being a faceroll.
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Yes - but who gets to draw the line in the sand to decide what is 'over'-optimization?
As both player and especially as GM I loath over-optimization.
It's not a hard concept. People with less optimization then you are filthy casuals and those with more are filthy power-gaming munchkins.
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I assumed that was sarcasm due to PFS's rather infamous reputation for being a faceroll.And lets not forget that PFS is rather lethal. You kind of need a super-optimized character just to live through it.No.
If you believe the above, then either your sampling of PFS is extremely non-representative, or your idea of what constitutes "super-optimized" is simply wrong.
Well, there are a handful of notoriously deadly scenarios, so it's possible he could have tried out a few sessions and just happened to get those exceptions back to back. I recall a thread in the PFS forums once where someone complained about how deadly he had found PFS to be in his first few games, and a little Q&A determined that was exactly what happened. Fortunately, folks were able to reassure him that his experience was not representative of the whole campaign, so he gave it another shot.
Roleplayers aren't becoming much more competitive, it's just that presence of internet and much more communication allows those who are to be more visible in the much-more widespread community. When you see more players, expect higher number of players of various types and preferences. Do the percentage of those increased? Hard to say. There is also issue of the more competitive players often being more vocal than the rest which my skew the results even more.
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Well, there are a handful of notoriously deadly scenarios, so it's possible he could have tried out a few sessions and just happened to get those exceptions back to back. I recall a thread in the PFS forums once where someone complained about how deadly he had found PFS to be in his first few games, and a little Q&A determined that was exactly what happened. Fortunately, folks were able to reassure him that his experience was not representative of the whole campaign, so he gave it another shot.I assumed that was sarcasm due to PFS's rather infamous reputation for being a faceroll.And lets not forget that PFS is rather lethal. You kind of need a super-optimized character just to live through it.No.
If you believe the above, then either your sampling of PFS is extremely non-representative, or your idea of what constitutes "super-optimized" is simply wrong.
Not to mention that with Pathfinder being a team game and PFS's basic idea of letting anyone join a game, it's just about inevitable that you'll be unlucky in your choice of teammates at some point. An optimized character is better when the deck is stacked against you.
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My experience is that optimization was never really part of role playing games until the late 90's and the release of 3.5 D&D. People just played their characters and told the story that the group was playing.
I put the blame on two things. One is ease of online discussion. By this time nearly every home has an internet connection and suddenly we were all able to share and talk as a global gaming community. From that players learnt what others had done and things started to click into place. Secondly, I put a lot of the "blame" on newcomers to the hobby. Many have come from computer gaming and MMO's where being the best of the best is paramount. The older role-players are moving on, popping their clogs or just not getting involved, and so the vocal new generation are having things changed to their way of playing. Times have changed
D&D 3.5 came out in 2003. 3.0 in 2000. So "the late 90's and the release of 3.5 D&D" don't really correlate.
The difference, in my opinion, is mechanics. D&D 3.x allows optimizations in ways early editions did not. The palette to work with is much larger.
Int the 90s there was the 2E black Players Options books. That was "Combat and Tactic" and "Skills and Powers". Those books had tons of optimization, that came out in 95. Prior to the optimization came came from the players handbooks. The race ones had the most options and did the subsclass books. Fighter added a bit but the Eleven Handbook really changed the game. It's this book that introduced what later become combat feats.