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Can somebody explain the bias against game balance?
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<blockquote data-quote="Barastrondo" data-source="post: 5135397" data-attributes="member: 3820"><p>Which is a tricky scale, unless you never start games at levels higher than 1, or allow a player to retire a character (living or dead) and bring in one of a different class. It's the same trouble with "balancing" a powerful prestige class with prerequisites that are supposed to be a drawback in the levels before you can take it. If you start your character at high enough level to take the prestige class, you haven't played through the levels where taking Toughness and Skill Focus: Profession were impacting your effectiveness. You start at the level where it pays off, which is a big net positive. This isn't just true of editions of D&D, of course; you could see this kind of disparity in the WoD games as well. </p><p></p><p>One of the interesting things about RPGs is that you can wind up sticking with a bunch of characters far longer than the events of the average novel series, and in ways to rival even long-running TV series. Balance becomes a sticking point precisely because we can spend so much time with our characters. In some cases, that may mean a cry for more of it because over 20 sessions, you've had maybe 5 where you shined and most of your buddies got 10. In others, it may mean a cry for less balance because the sessions where the entire group is disappointed with the "fair" ruling have added up. </p><p></p><p>I also figure this is why people have such hugely strong opinions about everything RPG-related, but that's kind of another theory.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Barastrondo, post: 5135397, member: 3820"] Which is a tricky scale, unless you never start games at levels higher than 1, or allow a player to retire a character (living or dead) and bring in one of a different class. It's the same trouble with "balancing" a powerful prestige class with prerequisites that are supposed to be a drawback in the levels before you can take it. If you start your character at high enough level to take the prestige class, you haven't played through the levels where taking Toughness and Skill Focus: Profession were impacting your effectiveness. You start at the level where it pays off, which is a big net positive. This isn't just true of editions of D&D, of course; you could see this kind of disparity in the WoD games as well. One of the interesting things about RPGs is that you can wind up sticking with a bunch of characters far longer than the events of the average novel series, and in ways to rival even long-running TV series. Balance becomes a sticking point precisely because we can spend so much time with our characters. In some cases, that may mean a cry for more of it because over 20 sessions, you've had maybe 5 where you shined and most of your buddies got 10. In others, it may mean a cry for less balance because the sessions where the entire group is disappointed with the "fair" ruling have added up. I also figure this is why people have such hugely strong opinions about everything RPG-related, but that's kind of another theory. [/QUOTE]
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Can somebody explain the bias against game balance?
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