For a lot of people, building a mechanically powerful character is half the fun of playing a tabletop game, but they simply don't fit in every game concept. If you are playing a reasonably balanced character with a well built story in an RP-centric campaign, you don't want Johnny McStabsalot the Min-Maxed Rogue killing machine overshadowing you in every combat encounter and offering absolutely nothing outside of battle. Likewise, if you are playing Johnny McStabsalot, you don't want to be sitting around twiddling your thumbs while waiting for something to stab...a lot. Moreover, you'll probably get bored with your ridiculous stabbing abilities or simply run out of interesting things to stab. So here's my solution, a series of weekly one-shots called the Midweek Min-Max . Each week, I'd create a challenging new scenario and challenge players to build a team of highly optimized characters to handle that scenario. I would give the players a sneak peek at what sorts of challenges they will have to face, and (more importantly) what they won't have to deal with. Additionally, there will might be restrictions on what books and character options are available. As an example, suppose I had a 3.5e scenario where players are skulking through an elaborate maze of a dungeon, rife with magical and mundane traps, obstacles, and challenges, but with only a handful of monsters. A fighter might not be particularly useful, but a skill-monkey rogue would shine, as would a wizard or cleric with an array of utility spells. The challenge could be framed as "Build the ultimate dungeon delver." Then the next week, I could offer up a game where players need to solve a series of murder mysteries, taxing their investigative and social skills. If you'd be interested in a game series like this, let me know so I can start putting work into building scenarios and making a plan for it.
