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Message: <blockquote data-quote="FalcWP" data-source="post: 4441343" data-attributes="member: 16858">As a fan of baseball and 4E, I have to say... I like this analogy.Baseball/3E are all about the individual.  Only a few major stats in baseball depend on getting any help from your teammates, particularly from an offensive standpoint - RBI and Runs, and both are heavily dependent on individual performance.  A lot of teamwork-related strategy can be employed, but it won't pad the stats of whoever does them (sacrifice bunts, taking pitches to let someone steal), so they're less glamorous.  Not unlike a bard's song or someone who uses Aid Another - yes, you played a major role in the win, but you didn't get that big crit or cast the crucial fireball - your influence was harder to measure.  One or two players on the team *will* be the big stars - your big slugger, your best starting pitcher, your wizard, your cleric - and everyone else is just sort of there to round it out.  This is more true at the major leagues (high levels) than it was back in Little League (level 1).So why do I like baseball?  Because I *love* going over stats.  I've got a number of games that let you take the reins as a manager and general manager for a team, making decisions about who to trade for, who to draft, and when to hit and run.  I play fantasy baseball (often four teams a season) and I've often researched useless little statistical oddities.  I put more thought into baseball when I'm *not* watching.Same thing with 3E.  I designed dozens of characters that I knew would never see the light of day.  Worked on countless little house rules.  Before one campaign started, over a period of a few weeks, I changed the character I was going to play about twelve times, as I came up with a more interesting rules combination.  It was a daily sort of thing, where I thought about it constantly.  Not unlike baseball, which is played every day during the season.  And, like baseball, most of my characters were created in a vacuum, with no thought as to how they'd work best on a team.  They were about doing the most damage (so, real big power hitter) or having the best defense (gold glove, decent bat) or employing one trick over and over (sinkerball specialist, or a basestealer who can't hit for average and has a mediocre OBP).4E, like football, is more of a team game.  On every play, players must do something to help the team, whether they're blocking the defense or catching a pass.  While certain players are going to get more glory, it is very obvious even to the casual observer that everyone is playing a big role.  Football is a game that I can be casually interested in without obsessing over.  I'm aware of major stats and big-name players, but not like in baseball, where I know who most of the players in the league are, what team they're on, what position(s) they play, and how skilled they are.  If I wanted to, I could become as knowledgeable about football as I am about baseball, but I have no real desire to get there.  I'd rather pay attention to it one or two days a week, maybe get the occasional highlight from SportsCenter, and enjoy it.And its similar to 4E.  I started off with 4E like it was 3E - designed a bunch of characters, constantly looked for things to tweak and improve.  And then, I realized it wasn't that sort of game.  I made one character for our upcoming game, and I tweaked him a few times as we geared up to play, but it was always the same character.  I was more eager to play than I was to go over every bit of available information to optimize things.  And what I *did* want to optimize was how I played on a team.  Knowing that the group was going to have an inordinate number of strikers, I went for a warlord focused not on his own damage, but increasing damage and flanking opportunities for the group.  But unlike in 3E, where this felt like I was sacrificing myself for the group to be good, in 4E, I feel like I'm still a major combat force.In each case, both options are a lot of fun.  It just depends on what you prefer at a given moment - a faster-paced team-oriented game, or something a bit slower, with more individual strategy that can be more heavily analyzed.  Personally, I like the fact that my favorites now include one of each - baseball and 4E.</blockquote>

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