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Legends & Lore 09/03 - RPG design philosophy
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<blockquote data-quote="pemerton" data-source="post: 6007664" data-attributes="member: 42582"><p>Sure. But that seems to me a bit different from the examples that you gave upthread (and that Mearls gives in his column). This seems to be all about mechanical variations supporting different mechanical preferences.</p><p></p><p>It doesn't tell us anything about spotlight balance, which is what you seemed to be focusing on before:</p><p></p><p style="margin-left: 20px">two dozen enemy minions with a carefully-placed fireball, the fighter wading through melee without a scratch on him, the rogue taking out the enemy wizard with a single well-placed Sneak Attack.</p><p></p><p>Mearls also seemed to be talking about spotlight balance:</p><p></p><p style="margin-left: 20px">Additionally, the moment where a character does something notable is a moment created by localized imbalance. It’s interesting when the wizard uses feather fall to allow the rogue to float silently on to a hill giant’s back and stab it in the back from above. It’s heroic for a fighter to block a dungeon corridor and singlehandedly hold back a dozen ogres while the rest of the party retreats. We want our characters to shine. </p><p></p><p>If spotlight balance is an important element of balance - and I think it is plausible that it is - the game needs to be designed to promote it, or at least to make room for it. And I think that achieving that is somewhat independent of variation in the build and resolution mechanics for class abilities.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="pemerton, post: 6007664, member: 42582"] Sure. But that seems to me a bit different from the examples that you gave upthread (and that Mearls gives in his column). This seems to be all about mechanical variations supporting different mechanical preferences. It doesn't tell us anything about spotlight balance, which is what you seemed to be focusing on before: [indent]two dozen enemy minions with a carefully-placed fireball, the fighter wading through melee without a scratch on him, the rogue taking out the enemy wizard with a single well-placed Sneak Attack.[/indent] Mearls also seemed to be talking about spotlight balance: [indent]Additionally, the moment where a character does something notable is a moment created by localized imbalance. It’s interesting when the wizard uses feather fall to allow the rogue to float silently on to a hill giant’s back and stab it in the back from above. It’s heroic for a fighter to block a dungeon corridor and singlehandedly hold back a dozen ogres while the rest of the party retreats. We want our characters to shine. [/indent] If spotlight balance is an important element of balance - and I think it is plausible that it is - the game needs to be designed to promote it, or at least to make room for it. And I think that achieving that is somewhat independent of variation in the build and resolution mechanics for class abilities. [/QUOTE]
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