The road to hell...

I could talk about the banking crisis. The insanity that is politics....but I'll make my point a different way.

The problem with any plan to improve the world - any part of it, from the financial system to your local street - is unexpected side effects. One cause of the sub prime mortgage mess is the US Government encouraging lending to the less well off, because owning your own home is good for society at large.

So take the game of Dungeons and Dragons - D&D. You've seen my hand wringing before about making characters, my agonising over effectiveness. So this time, for that Canadian who's smarter then me - for his game I decided to throw away efficiency - and go with the Roleplay.

We're in a swamp...surrounded with marsh and mud. About the only semi-sentient race in 20 leagues are lizard men and pirates....so lizard man it is.

Magic using lizard men are rare...so it's fighter and barbarian to choose from. But lizard men are a primitive race. They've not entirely mastered the art of fire...spears really are the height of technology...sounds perfect for a barbarian...who kills his foes with his teeth while in a killing frenzy.

Yep, very roleplay. Barbarians can't even write....perfect sense in a swamp. It'll just decay anyway...

It was at this point the DM suggested something. I'm not going to say what....but it's a little extra bit of roleplay. Took a few weeks to agree on it, as it's mostly homebrew.

So far, so good.

So I toddle along to the DM's home and arrive a little early. I make a list of everything Hrissis starts with.

It takes a whole page of paper.

Then a role some dice. In full view of everyone, I got a nice set of numbers to work with. Not unusually high. I've had better - but nothing to complain about.

So after a little work - number crunching, copying out information, thinking of a name...we have Hrissis. And once again the road to hell has found us.

Made with only the intention of being a good "roleplay" character we have Hrissis. Starting with upto three attacks (compared to the usual one) he has a standard attack of +10 (compared to the typical +9) with 1d4+6 damage, for an average of 8.5 - which is the same as for a normal barbarian. So what's so bad about this?

Why do I say he's on the pathway to hell?

Because at the drop of a hat he can go to three attacks at +12 for 1d4+8 damage. So about as good as THREE equivalent level characters.

And did I mention he's naked??

If when playing a simple game you can accidentally screw up by a factor of three - what makes governments, charities or ANYONE ELSE think they can avoid unintended side effects??