Why we play certain backgrounds less.

[John Hogg <johnhogg@expert.cc.purdue.edu>]

This all comes down to how condusive the way we (fantasy Club) run AQ is
to playing certain backgrounds of characters.  (As do MANY of the issues
we have here that we don't have playing around our friends' tables in
High School.)

1)	We rotate GM's, sometimes unpredictably.
2)	On any given adventure we sign up for, it's not likely that we
	regularly run the same players, and even those players may be running
	different characters.

As such, you don't have one GM running a traditional campaign for a few
weeks straight.  Furthermore, because the GM doesn't know which characters
are showing up, he can't really tailor scenes to fit a specific party's
strengths and weaknesses.

I'll continue with the above in a minute ... However, let me get something
straight:

Points 1 and 2 are also what keep PFC from just being another gaming club,
and allow the variety of styles, both GMing and playing, to mix.  The fact
that every gaming session is different (at least from a "chemestry" point
of view) is a big reason behind my coming when I can.  Anyway, I'm not
blasting at how or why things are done this way, I'm just illustrating my
point.

Combat is expected during an adventure:  It's the way most characters die;
the basis for most of the mechanics in the book; and the forte of many of
the backgrounds.  Warriors and Marines function are to go toe-to-toe in
one manner or another.  Most mages can get spells to do damage, alter DVs
or MODs, or alter number of attacks.  The more common player religions,
Anubis, Orus, Ra, and T'or have background specific combat spells or
effects, and most priests have access to Paralyse, Abate Fatigue, Divine
Word, etc. if they want them.

I'd be willing to bet the above paragraph covers about 85% of the
characters in AQ.

It's very easy to run a "find the dingus" adventure.  Furthermore, it's
almost nicer to run a combat rather than a negotiation for the dingus once
it's found, as EVERYONE can participate in combat, where you run the risk
of losing player interest if only a handful of people participate in
planning or executing the negotiation.  Sure, some characters die, but
everyone gets to play.

It's the expectation of combat that gears most characters towards being at
least passable at it.  Furthermore, if the majority of the eps for your
first 15 or so ratings needs to be geared to survive combat, do you pick a
background condusive to combat, or pay triple cost to be lousy at it?

Why are there so few Conjuration-based fire mages?  Because most players
are concerned with flame dance and fireball (fire group), shadow* (shadow
group), Common, Movement, and defer that few emphasize illusion.  More
importantly, the GM usually doesn't gear very much interaction in 5-6
hours that is conducive to anything but direct confrontation.

In a similar manner, what about a skill-based thief (auger).  It's a
mainstay of many FRPs, why not AQ?  Magic can do many of the things a
thief would be interested in, for one reason.  But, the most important,
being sneaky isn't a mainstay of most adventures.  Further, even if you
have a sneaky character, you are one of perhaps two or three characters
within an 8-10 player party.

Because we (GMs) CAN'T give an hour to each player to emphasize what his
character is good at, be it seduction, negotiation, entertainment, etc.
We tend to fall back on combat so all  the players can particpate in the
game.

This is why there are so few nomads, augers, priests of Isis, Neptune,
Taurus (even before the bounty) or Osiris, and water mages that don't buy
up to mutate or transmogrify.

To address nomads specifically (seeker, preserver, and trubador):

1)	They don't have any skill at combat
2)	They have very few effects for combat (luck, bombards, etc.)
3)	Their effects are ep-intensive
4)	They have very few perminent effects

Therefore, you can't just make a nomad with the purpose of making a luck
amulet factory, and have a playable long-term character.  When you use an
incant, it should be used for something that counts, not as an effect for
any given moment.  Furthermore, most incants are very subtle (exception
for some of the high end trubador stuff).  There is no KRAKKA-THOOM and
1-3 people drop dead.

However:
1)	Seekers manipulate game mechanics very well.  If you want a
character that doesn't fail most resistance checks, or can default a great
deal, make a seeker.  They can inflate their attributes relatively
quickly, and can buy luck or magic resistance amulets at 2x cost.

Seekers are also particularly gifted in dealing with the undead or
spiritual.

2)	Trubadors manipulate other characters and actors well.  They can
dictate if combat happens, control people's decision-making process,
tie-up entire armies for finite periods of time, get people to react
favorably or unfavorably to something, or oughtright control what people
sense (physically) or feel (emotionally). 

3)	Preservers are nice to have in general. Much like a priest of
Isis, they are ostensibly there to keep bad stuff from happening to other
party members.

4)	Nomads don't have to buy up a list of spells to get use from their
incants, and don't have a restriction on how much they can finesse them.

ANY background has enough fodder to be a fun, playable character, but not
necessarily enough to be good in combat.

A counterexample would be (correct me if I'm wrong) Rob's nomad and Greg's
auger.  They're both long-term, powerful characters.

However, they have the benefit of the Centralia campaign.  That is, they
have a relatively fixed group of players, and GMs familiar with their
characters.  Just take a look at Steve's website.  Because the same group
of people tend to play together, and the GMs are willing to put in the
work, you have a very player-centered setting.

Further, the familiarity the players have with each other leads to much
more teamwork between their characters, both in town actions and during
mainstream gameplay.

Here, not only do you have a group of friends playing around the table,
but a mix of backgrounds that will compliment each other in combat,
negotiation, other roleplay scenerios, etc.


John Hogg			johnhogg@expert.cc.purdue.edu
==================================================================
Must ... fight ... Satan.
Make it ... up to ... him ... later.	-Bart Simpson