Playing Path of Exile reinforced this concept for me

I'm not really sure how long it's been since the last post, because I've been in a self induced Path of Exile coma. Due to your ability to completely turn your brain off and think of other things while you endlessly grind  in PoE, I wouldn't say it was entirely unproductive. People often ask about inspiration from other sources, so I'll spend this post describing the one major thing I feel I've taken away from this play time.

Before that, I want to preface this with a general note on productivity. I have found that my interest in things comes and goes and I can't really control what I'll be passionate about on any given week. When I am passionate about it, I fully devote huge portions of time to one specific thing until I get bored of it. A lot of people can be like this, but it is really important to realize this is the case. It is very easy to beat yourself up when you feel 'lazy' or unproductive because you can't force yourself to work on the things you want to be finished. I'm lucky to have designed myself a life where I can work on a variety of different things and choose my own schedule when I need to, but it's also no coincidence things are that way. I really need to, or I won't get anything done. I only wish I realized that sooner.

In this most recent case, building PoE characters was at the absolute front of my mind each day. However, I've come to accept that eventually I'll get excited all over again to come back and give this same passion back to the projects I want to see to completion. This is the case now where one or two ideas for Myriad have completely pulled me back with full engagement to see them to completion. TL;DR, you don't always have to be so hard on yourself. If you are, you get stuck in that misery of being disappointed in yourself for not doing the thing you can't force yourself to do. The sooner you accept you'll be back to it later, the sooner you will let go and actually come back to it. 

This is going to require some setup explanation about how a few things work in Path of Exile to relate them back to tabletop RPG. 

In PoE, there are two different leagues you can play in that we will be focusing on. You can either play a 'SSF' character or a Trade character. 'SSF' refers to 'Solo Self Found', meaning that you can not trade items with any other player -- And trading is very powerful. You can clearly see the difference in leaderboard statistics. In SSF the highest DPS build is currently 9.1 million damage. The exact same build in trade league is at the top of the leaderboard with  75 million. That is a monumental difference in character potential.

To immediately equate this to tabletop systems, I instantly thought of Pathfinder 1st Edition. You can create some downright broken characters because there are so many supplementary Pathfinder books that add classes, spells, and creation options. Even the books with campaign modules or settings for DMs include classes and spells, to give extra incentive to purchase those books or to make characters thematic to whatever setting the campaign presents. I consider those additional books to be like trading in PoE. If you give a player access to ALL of their options, the end result will be exponentially more powerful. 

When you are planning your hero of ultimate power and you have all of these choices, the psychological desire to min-max your character to 75 million DPS increases. It is a rare player who can resist the temptation to be stronger when they know they could be. I think this shows up in a very significant way for all the players who say they 'are not smart enough' to play PoE or claim that following a build guide is absolutely essential -- because you will never learn how to achieve that level of power without following the guideline. However, the reality is you only need 1-2 million dps for a character to feel strong enough to kill all endgame bosses. Unfortunately, knowing that 75 million is possible is enough to deter a lot of players from doing anything else. I'd argue it even overwhelms potential players from ever learning the game in the first place. I've seen many players discouraged from playing PoE and saying it is 'too confusing' or 'too hard to learn' that are usually stuck in the mentality that this level of min-maxed build is a requirement for success and enjoyment. 

So, obviously a character who has more options and has been min-maxed is a more powerful character. The real takeaway that I've had is in realizing which one is more fun from a character building perspective.  75 million damage is not achievable by a normal player and the expectation that you should be 1 shotting bosses with such high damage on your first playthrough only serves to demotivate you and make you feel bad when you can't do it. 

It also limits creativity despite all of the available options. 150+ skills in a game where people play 10 of them. If a player is aware of a more optimal choice, they will choose it. It takes some rare resolve to avoid doing this. An artificial resolve created by the SSF category. By acknowledging that you will not be able to trade with other players, you immediately accept that you will not be as strong as you could be and you lower your expectations on what is possible. You are not disappointment when you do not meet these expectations, because you already accepted the handicap. Players still choose the most powerful options that require the least amount of gear, but the expectations are still set lower.

This also makes finding unique items actually fun. In a trade league, if you need a specific unique item, you can usually just have them for no cost. Uniques get devalued so quickly it is harder to find somebody willing to take the time to accept the trade. It's like Jeff Bezos walking to the store for a gallon of milk so he can make his own pancakes.  In SSF, when a unique item drops, you are much more likely to be excited because you had to find it for this item to be available to you. Your mind starts engaging with all the possible characters you can create now that you have this tool. Your initial plan for your character may even travel down a new path because of unexpected options -- And THAT is the most important thing.

The only way to absolutely prevent a person from min-maxing a character is to not let them have all of the options. The only way to be excited when you find one of these options, is to not have been guaranteed from the inception of your character that you will absolutely get it. This is not to say that min-maxing is bad, but I honestly believe even a player who loves to min-max will have more fun this way. In tabletop RPGs, where a campaign can last more than a year, how exciting is it to have your entire character, level by level, planned out from the very beginning? 

This is something that can be seen within the way that Arcadum runs his D&D games. It is normal at a certain point that a player character in a campaign will unveil a new class or option they did not know was a choice from the beginning. A powerful mentor will give them access to new abilities. An ancient sword will be found that can entirely change the identity of a character, even from a roleplay perspective. Something the player did not plan for. I have never seen a player deny one of these choices. When offered a new unique power and character path, it is always accepted.

The one problem I've always had with this is that it feels very deterministic on the part of the DM. These things take some time to set up in roleplay, but what if a player is choosing to accept their new path only because they don't think they'll get offered another one? Everyone around you in your party is becoming kings of mystical realms nobody knew existed, infused with cool ancient demons with intriguing backstories...and you get offered your path and maybe it misses the mark a little bit. Do you say "no", and continue just being a 'normal guy' by comparison of the rest of your party? Or do you accept your fate and embrace new power? Accepting your fate is min-maxing and it still takes a very rare person to not become stronger when they know how to be stronger. Ideally, Myriad doesn't even place the player characters as important people within a destiny or prophecy.

So, what I'm inspired to do with Myriad is remove the deterministic nature of the DM deciding what direction your character growth may grow in. I would love a player to have the feeling of a unique weapon dropping by random chance and they rethink their entire build based on the strange new mechanic they did not know existed.  I also want to reinforce in players minds that this is something that will happen and can be expected so that when an item is found that went to an ally rather than themselves, they know their time is coming and they look forward to it. This would be done through different campaign mechanics where the players are aware the loot they receive down the line is being improved by actions currently taken. 

The best example I have, which may be the direction the next campaign goes, is the idea of setting up for a complex heist where rare items are stolen from a vault of some sort. 'Heist' from Path of Exile as well has inspired a little bit here, but I've been excited for this kind of tabletop campaign for years at this point. The idea that doing research on your heist target actually improves the results of what you will receive from completing it reinforces the players having active control over their desire to hunt for cool loot. That's not something that is easily done in a game that can't be grinded infinitely -- the complete opposite. A game that is only played once a week. And when they finally get it, they will know that they earned it. I didn't place it there for them, because the loot will be generated based on the effort put in. I hope to create a list of 'unique' items that are just as powerful as skill choices. If they are skill choices presented at character creation...players will only ever choose the best ones. Wizard? You're taking fireball and haste, right?

Other than that, I made sure to watch a lot of documentaries while grinding. It gave me a lot more time to deepen the lore and consider some new ideas and how to incorporate them into the setting. There is a lot I'm excited to get back to work on now!