I have one that came up in my game Saturday night.
We’re playing The 13th Fleet, which is based on the Forged in the Dark system, and is a kind of Star Trek spoof. It’s meant to be a silly and funny game. Each player is a Captain in the 13th Fleet, which is where the empire sends all its problem officers. After a battle with the Coalition of Worlds decimated the rest of the empire’s armada, only the 13th Fleet remains. They must return across hostile space to their homeworld. But they’re also competing to be named Admiral upon their return.
One of my players took an ability for his captain that allows him to share Resources (an in game.. uh, resource) and to clear one Stress whenever he does. Management of Resources is a key part of the game, and they get divvied up by whoever is the current Fleet Commander. The ability essentially allows them to funnel all the Resources through that Captain which he then distributes accordingly and clears stress.
The game has a competitive element to it, as well as cooperative, so this ability seems very prone to teamwork. So I keep finding myself trying to limit it in some way. I don’t even mean to do it, it just happens. It’s not game breaking by any means (and the tone of the game is so over the top silly that it shouldn’t matter even if it was), but there’s something about it that doesn’t seem right to me, and so I’m constantly trying to undermine it, which isn’t fair at all to that player.
It’s just the latest example of an urge I have to put what is essentially a preference of mine ahead of others’. If I decide that something is off in some way… not far enough to actually be damaging to the game’s balance, but just the level of “cheesy” or otherwise flawed… I try to limit its use or utility even if it’s something the player enjoys.