ThorinTeague
Creative/Father/Professor
I get fairly annoyed when I see someone call xyz game or aspect of that game “broken,” especially when talking about major releases that have been tested to the nth degree. It does however pique my curiosity about what is a genuinely broken mechanic vs. absurd and unlikely circumstances fomented by bad faith/abusive game play.
Just an example for the purpose of this discussion: What I’ve seen D&D shorts post to his YouTube channel comes to mind (yep, he actually talks about the game). I haven’t seen all of his videos but the ones I have watched all hash out some astronomically improbable combinations of variables, cherry picked one out of context feature at a time throughout multiple disparate supplements, coupled with some extraordinarily bad faith interpretations of the D&D 5th Edition rules. He’s not the only player who does this by any stretch of the imagination, but his abuses are definitely some of the most outrageous I’ve ever seen.
However, for another example on the other side of that coin, there were a couple books in late pf1e that, when used as intended, pretty much broke the game. So I am just ruminating on where the actual line is. Of course, it’s probably not easily defined, if it can be defined at all. But it deserves some thought I believe. Then there’s the glorious, beautiful mess that is the Palladium megaverse. I don’t know that I want to call anything in that system “broken” per se, but it definitely is cookoo.
Please share your thoughts on where genuinely broken game mechanics end and player abuse begins.
Just an example for the purpose of this discussion: What I’ve seen D&D shorts post to his YouTube channel comes to mind (yep, he actually talks about the game). I haven’t seen all of his videos but the ones I have watched all hash out some astronomically improbable combinations of variables, cherry picked one out of context feature at a time throughout multiple disparate supplements, coupled with some extraordinarily bad faith interpretations of the D&D 5th Edition rules. He’s not the only player who does this by any stretch of the imagination, but his abuses are definitely some of the most outrageous I’ve ever seen.
However, for another example on the other side of that coin, there were a couple books in late pf1e that, when used as intended, pretty much broke the game. So I am just ruminating on where the actual line is. Of course, it’s probably not easily defined, if it can be defined at all. But it deserves some thought I believe. Then there’s the glorious, beautiful mess that is the Palladium megaverse. I don’t know that I want to call anything in that system “broken” per se, but it definitely is cookoo.
Please share your thoughts on where genuinely broken game mechanics end and player abuse begins.