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What makes us care about combat balance in D&D?
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<blockquote data-quote="Diamondeye" data-source="post: 6660496" data-attributes="member: 60019"><p>While this is perfectly fine as a personal feeling, you are not describing a problem with the system except insofar as that system does not meet your personal preferences. You rather clearly admit this by pointing out that the growth in power of casters "seems" a certain way, and then you go on to describe how it "reeks" of "nerd power fantasy". It's fairly clear that you don't like this effect, so you've decided to imply - completely without evidence - that it's tied to a negative social stereotype.</p><p></p><p>As for advanced, nuanced, and thesis papers on "good" games, a "good" game is a rather subjective idea and I don't know in exactly what serious academic program one might write a thesis on what makes a "good" game. Possibly this exists and if it does perhaps you could furnish us with an idea of where to find it - it might make interesting reading. However, it also is pretty likely it would turn out to be the same pompous blathering that much of what passes as "academics" these days is, and at the risk of injecting irrelevant social commentary, results in the cheapening of education and dragging talent off into fluff subjects that would be better utilized designing missiles at Raytheon or something like that.</p><p></p><p>Finally, there is nothing lacking in "advancement" or "nuance" in Vancian systems; the system has repeatedly adapted and evolved and gained new features. That's like claiming a 2016 Ford Mustang is not advanced because the original Mustang came out 40 years ago.</p><p></p><p>Simply assigning positive terms to things you like and negative terms to ones you don't isn't very convincing.</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>Unfortunately, it's also not "broken" and the system runs "reasonably well" - better than reasonably well - without so much house ruling. Furthermore, once again, the system is designed to be run with house ruling. ALL TTRPGs are inherently designed with the knowledge people will do that. It has nothing to do with whether it's fair the the DM; it is a known quantity of DMs that they almost always WILL make revisions to the rules - especially since so many rules are simply guidelines, assumptions, or simply cannot anticipate certain situations. The CR system is a perfect example; it's a guideline based on a certain party composition and MUST be "houseruled" if the party composition is different. WBL is another example - it's a guideline that the DM adjusts based on his wants for the campaign.</p><p></p><p>The fundamental underlying truth though is that non-4E systems were never "broken". It may be a common problem that casters become dominant, but it's also a common problem that DMs do not know how to design encounters regardless of how good the rules are. It's a common problem that the caster is the DM's girlfriend/boyfriend that he/she wants to feel powerful. It's a common problem that someone at the table is socially aggressive or a bully. It's a common problem that people try to balance party members against each other rather than against the world. And it's a very common problem that people think all classes should ahve equal utility in all parts of combat, which inevitably pares casters back until they're nothing more than a robe-wearing artillery cannon.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Diamondeye, post: 6660496, member: 60019"] While this is perfectly fine as a personal feeling, you are not describing a problem with the system except insofar as that system does not meet your personal preferences. You rather clearly admit this by pointing out that the growth in power of casters "seems" a certain way, and then you go on to describe how it "reeks" of "nerd power fantasy". It's fairly clear that you don't like this effect, so you've decided to imply - completely without evidence - that it's tied to a negative social stereotype. As for advanced, nuanced, and thesis papers on "good" games, a "good" game is a rather subjective idea and I don't know in exactly what serious academic program one might write a thesis on what makes a "good" game. Possibly this exists and if it does perhaps you could furnish us with an idea of where to find it - it might make interesting reading. However, it also is pretty likely it would turn out to be the same pompous blathering that much of what passes as "academics" these days is, and at the risk of injecting irrelevant social commentary, results in the cheapening of education and dragging talent off into fluff subjects that would be better utilized designing missiles at Raytheon or something like that. Finally, there is nothing lacking in "advancement" or "nuance" in Vancian systems; the system has repeatedly adapted and evolved and gained new features. That's like claiming a 2016 Ford Mustang is not advanced because the original Mustang came out 40 years ago. Simply assigning positive terms to things you like and negative terms to ones you don't isn't very convincing. Unfortunately, it's also not "broken" and the system runs "reasonably well" - better than reasonably well - without so much house ruling. Furthermore, once again, the system is designed to be run with house ruling. ALL TTRPGs are inherently designed with the knowledge people will do that. It has nothing to do with whether it's fair the the DM; it is a known quantity of DMs that they almost always WILL make revisions to the rules - especially since so many rules are simply guidelines, assumptions, or simply cannot anticipate certain situations. The CR system is a perfect example; it's a guideline based on a certain party composition and MUST be "houseruled" if the party composition is different. WBL is another example - it's a guideline that the DM adjusts based on his wants for the campaign. The fundamental underlying truth though is that non-4E systems were never "broken". It may be a common problem that casters become dominant, but it's also a common problem that DMs do not know how to design encounters regardless of how good the rules are. It's a common problem that the caster is the DM's girlfriend/boyfriend that he/she wants to feel powerful. It's a common problem that someone at the table is socially aggressive or a bully. It's a common problem that people try to balance party members against each other rather than against the world. And it's a very common problem that people think all classes should ahve equal utility in all parts of combat, which inevitably pares casters back until they're nothing more than a robe-wearing artillery cannon. [/QUOTE]
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