3 + 2 or 2 + 3

[azrianni]

Starting work on a second PTA series, and working on a character, I realized that I'm apparently really biased in favor of Edges over Connections.  The characters I make or imagine making always involve 3 Edges and only 2 Connections.  In the first series I did, one player did it the other way, so I know people might do it.  But I'm wondering what other people's experiences have been.  Do players split fairly evenly between 3/2 and 2/3 builds, or is one generally favored?

[Matt Wilson]

I wouldn't be at all surprised if edges were chosen over connections most of the time, at least by anyone who's used to more mainstream games.

There are heaps of systems out there that involve character ability, but not very many that involve character relationships.

On the other hand, my wife, who doesn't ever roleplay except to humor me and playtest my games, would choose connections over edges every time, I guarantee it. She likes stories about relationships.

So it's all about what you're familiar with.

[Ginger Stampley]

We're finishing character development by email for our series before we meet FTF again, and while I don't know what the ratio is, I know my character has 2 Edges and 3 Connections. The protagonists in our group are split by generation (2 older, 2 younger, and 1 who may be in the middle but is the half-brother of the younger PC's father).

I think our setting and themes may drive us collectively to take more Connections than Edges, but as I said, I haven't seen all the PCs yet, so I can't be sure. We're writing a near-future SF series about miners in the asteroid belt as the megacorps come to regularize the frontier (western-themed, yet oddly not influenced much by Firefly because none of us seem to be TV-watchers) and loyalty/family/atonement issues seem to be high on the agenda, which would drive the protagonists toward connections.