Hello to my newest friends!

[NumberKruncher]

Hello all.

I'm the guy in his late 30's who's been away from gaming for a number of years.

I love RPG's, but put it aside for work and family.  Now I'm going through a divorce and RPG's have changed a bit since 2nd Edition AD&D!

I live in the State of New Jersey, in the USA.

My other hobbies include softball, karaoke, drinking (which ties into the first two hobbies - LOL).

I am here because I feel like I've finally found a place I can express the virtues of truly getting all you can out of a character.  If you try to express this on most other boards, you'll get called a powergamer (which is a bad thing), and somewhat shunned.

I don't always powergame my  characters.  Sometimes I will just try to optimize them a bit.  I'm not a fan of gimped characters.  I like conceptual characters, but I like making them as effective as I can without losing that concept.

I am now playing in a Pathfinder Society game and a D&D 5th edition game.  I will also be joining a Star Wars: Edge of Empire game soon.

[CaptRory]

Hello Fellow Citizen of New Jersey!

I agree with you.

Anything can be Optimized (aka Min/Maxed). You can take a really weak concept and make it playable or you can take a strong concept and break it. Min/Maxing is a tool. It's like Fire. A good player will make characters that mesh with the party, help their fellow players out with their characters, and not break the game. A bad player (aka A Munchkin) will use Min/Maxing along with other tools like Cheating or Being An Asshole to ruin a game for their own amusement.

There's nothing wrong with making a strong character, just make sure everyone is on the same page and be willing to pitch in and help out.

You can check out my Gentleman's Agreement in my signature.