ZigguratWhich character concepts are less cool to play than they seems ?
As a GM, basically any artificer / inventor. They only fit into very specific settings, so they’re very out of place in most games. If the system has light rules for inventions, the player thinks they can create anything, and I have to constantly fight them to stop trying to one-up the other characters. If the system has robust invention rules, these characters don’t generally get to invent anything since so much downtime and resources are required.
HipsterTenZeroFrom the player’s perspective this is a rough one as well. There’s nothing more disappointing than to roll up a crafty character only to discover that the campaign has break-neck pacing to prevent rest spam, but also incidentally preventing any downtime for crafts.
Longwing@HipsterTenZero @DrakeRichards
Very much this. It's basically the "hacker movie" problem in tabletop form. Actual making involves a ton of time and most of it is boring (even if the results are amazing). It's very difficult to translate this into the pace of a story while still making it interesting. To do so you often have to engage in flights of complete fancy, like the competitive code writing scenes in hacker movies.
Cyberpunk does this right.
The hacker sees a virtual representation of what the group faces, can interact with it in real time, and is in actual mortal danger along with everyone else, even while sitting at home.
The hacker sees a virtual representation of what the group faces, can interact with it in real time, and is in actual mortal danger along with everyone else, even while sitting at home.