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Game Design 118: Comprehensiveness
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<blockquote data-quote="ExploderWizard" data-source="post: 7652057" data-attributes="member: 66434"><p>A game should be as comprehensive as it needs to be to meet the stated goals of play. If one of the stated goals of play is a fast pace then quick resolution of all activity is a design constraint that impacts comprehensiveness. Prioritizing goals of play will have significant impact on the importance of comprehensiveness to the finished game. </p><p></p><p>Game balance is a different issue. Unless your game is no more than the sum of the rules, game balance will need to be provided, in part by the participants of the game. The more that players can do which is not spelled out in detail in the rules the less comprehensive the game needs to be. What can be done strictly according to the rules, is of course a subject of great interest to the players. The more of this there is, in sheer bulk, the more the players will tend to fixate on it. Go overboard and soon there will be more interest in what a character <em>is able to do</em> via the rules than in <em>what the character is actually doing </em>in the campaign. If more table talk revolves around what a character will be able to do with ability X, once gained, instead of what that character did, or plans to do in the campaign world then the game may be a bit rules comprehension heavy. </p><p></p><p>In short, make the level of rules comprehensiveness serve the game instead of the other way around.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="ExploderWizard, post: 7652057, member: 66434"] A game should be as comprehensive as it needs to be to meet the stated goals of play. If one of the stated goals of play is a fast pace then quick resolution of all activity is a design constraint that impacts comprehensiveness. Prioritizing goals of play will have significant impact on the importance of comprehensiveness to the finished game. Game balance is a different issue. Unless your game is no more than the sum of the rules, game balance will need to be provided, in part by the participants of the game. The more that players can do which is not spelled out in detail in the rules the less comprehensive the game needs to be. What can be done strictly according to the rules, is of course a subject of great interest to the players. The more of this there is, in sheer bulk, the more the players will tend to fixate on it. Go overboard and soon there will be more interest in what a character [I]is able to do[/I] via the rules than in [I]what the character is actually doing [/I]in the campaign. If more table talk revolves around what a character will be able to do with ability X, once gained, instead of what that character did, or plans to do in the campaign world then the game may be a bit rules comprehension heavy. In short, make the level of rules comprehensiveness serve the game instead of the other way around. [/QUOTE]
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