Quote Originally Posted by MeimuHakurei View Post
Well, it depends on the game system how well this pans out - in FATE Core for instance you would have no problems letting both Thor and the potted plant contribute to the narrative since either of you can invoke aspects just fine. I won't say you can't have fun in a game like that, but I would claim that D&D is ill-suited to make the potted plant interesting to play.
I'm… not quite sure how a potted plant would "invoke aspects" - or, perhaps, how it would "realistically" do so. Can you explain what that would look like?

But my actual point… OK, I'm not actually sure what my point is, because my subconscious says that there's more to it than I'm consciously aware of. What I consciously intended my point to be, well, you've hit on part of it: those who can look past mechanical equality to narrative equality I find easier to communicate with, and more likely to produce a fun game.

But my sentient potted plant didn't have narrative equality, not really. Much like how, in a play, not everyone has equal spotlight time. The play would likely be much worse for the audience (and probably for the actors, too) if every character followed the Power Rangers rule of "balance". IMO, you get much better stories when you aren't forced to give every actor equal spotlight time. Similarly, you get much more fun games when you aren't forced to follow artificial constraints of maintaining mechanical or even narrative balance between party members. When every player is happy playing their role in the emergent story. That's when games are the most fun, IME.