Comment:

I like tabletop roleplaying games.

Of course, I love to play existing games, but I also love whipping up homebrew games, often because I can implement some unique mechanic or unusual gimmick that suits the specific setting. I've done spy games where the superspy gadgets are all on Post-Its that can be swapped between players as needed. I've done cosmic horror set at a school where character sheets are the students' report cards. I've done a pantheon of gods whose stats all got divided by 1000 as they were forced into mortal forms. I've done a game where the players' abilities draw from the reactions they can inspire in others, so their stats are all based on different emotions. I like positing different ways to enumerate and balance a character's abilities.

I assume anyone who's played D&D has statted themselves out with Strength and Dexterity and all that at one point or another. I'd say D&D isn't the best way to evaluate a modern real person, though, given how rarely we get into magical combat with wraiths.

Take a step out, into the meta. Look down at yourself. What kind of game is your player playing? Is this moment - the time you're reading this - is it being played out, or is it a handwaved thing that is assumed to happen between scenes, something that won't be important to your plot? What are the stats that describe you, and which are your highest ones? If you could pick one of those stats to improve, what would it be? If you could plan out the next five stat changes, what would they be? If your character begins to become less powerful, which of your abilities would be first on the chopping block?

And - what'll really bake your noodle - would the choices you make for how to level your character be the same as the choices your hypothetical player is making?

Transcript:

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0158 - 2167/07/06/16:06 - Lee Caldavera's apartment, living room.
Doc: I know you like to posit transposing yourself into other times and places, but I don't think it's particularly helpful to speculate on whether or not you'd be successful in another era. You are shaped by your origin and your circumstances, a "you" that was born five hundred years ago would not, meaningfully, be you.
LC (still just holding sandwich): Yeah, but... you see it all the time, in fiction. Alternate universes, evil twins, parallel selves...
Doc: Those are speculative fantasies, they aren't real.
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Zoa: Twins are real.
Doc: Yes, of course. Thank you for your input, Zoa.
Zoa: Happy to be of service.
LC: If there was another me from another world... would that Lee be better? Do better? Would they be happier, or more productive, or have better relationships?
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Doc: You realize you're just effectively asking if you should change yourself.
LC: I am the thing that I am, though. I mean, I would like to be a better person, but if that change makes me less myself, isn't that kind of like not existing any more at all?
Zoa: Uh... if you don't want to ever change the essence of who and what you are, I've got some bad news for you about how the linear flow of time works.
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Doc: Indeed. Of course, you may not be able to choose permanence, but you do get some measure of choice over what you change into.
Zoa: Within reason. You could get horns and a tail, but going full kaiju dragon isn't an option yet, as I understand it.
LC: I assume they're working on that.
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