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Message: <blockquote data-quote="dead" data-source="post: 1744821" data-attributes="member: 18707">I was wondering if the ultra-sensitivity to rules balance that seems to be prevalent in 3E culture is a good thing. I mean, superficially it sounds good, right? What could be wrong with a game designer being accutely aware of game balance?Well, I don't know about game designers, but I've found myself - as a GM - affected by this accute need to keep everything "balanced" and thought: Is it cramping my style?I've found that in my play of 3E that myself (and my players) are always fretting over whether such-and-such a rule's change or such-and-such a new class etc. is "balanced". Now, of course we thought of these things in 1E and 2E but it didn't seem as prevalent . . . it didn't seem to "distract" us.Let me give you an example. Recently, a player wanted to jump in front of another player to protect her from an incoming attack. In previous editions of the game I would have allowed it . . . I would reward such creativity (provided it isn't abused). But in our 3E game, I said: "NO. You cannot act out of turn".Later I felt a bit guilty about this. So what did I do? Working with game balance in mind, I created a Feat called "Shield Friend" which allows you to act out of turn in this way. I presented it to the player knowing full well they wouldn't invest in the new Feat but *covering* myself from any accusation of being a stiff, unyielding GM. But I thought to myself: "Oh no, am I a victim of the Culture of Balance? Do I *really* have to make a Feat for everything that breaks the rules in order to balance the game?"Does anyone else feel that they are more involved in making balanced *crunch* and less involved in making creative decisions that might not be rules-balanced but contribute greatly to the *story*?(And, no, I don't want to go back to previous editions. I've played 3E for four years now and our group is loving it. I've just noticed that I've never fretted so much over game balance before. Maybe I should just loosen up. All the *crunch* out there has gotten to me.) <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f641.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":(" title="Frown    :("  data-smilie="3"data-shortname=":(" /></blockquote>

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