Menu
News
All News
Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
Pathfinder
Starfinder
Warhammer
2d20 System
Year Zero Engine
Industry News
Reviews
Dragon Reflections
Columns
Weekly Digests
Weekly News Digest
Freebies, Sales & Bundles
RPG Print News
RPG Crowdfunding News
Game Content
ENterplanetary DimENsions
Mythological Figures
Opinion
Worlds of Design
Peregrine's Next
RPG Evolution
Other Columns
From the Freelancing Frontline
Monster ENcyclopedia
WotC/TSR Alumni Look Back
4 Hours w/RSD (Ryan Dancey)
The Road to 3E (Jonathan Tweet)
Greenwood's Realms (Ed Greenwood)
Drawmij's TSR (Jim Ward)
Community
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Resources
Wiki
Pages
Latest activity
Media
New media
New comments
Search media
Downloads
Latest reviews
Search resources
EN Publishing
Store
EN5ider
Adventures in ZEITGEIST
Awfully Cheerful Engine
What's OLD is NEW
Judge Dredd & The Worlds Of 2000AD
War of the Burning Sky
Level Up: Advanced 5E
Events & Releases
Upcoming Events
Private Events
Featured Events
Socials!
Twitch
YouTube
Facebook (EN Publishing)
Facebook (EN World)
Twitter
Instagram
TikTok
Podcast
Features
Top 5 RPGs Compiled Charts 2004-Present
Adventure Game Industry Market Research Summary (RPGs) V1.0
Ryan Dancey: Acquiring TSR
Q&A With Gary Gygax
D&D Rules FAQs
TSR, WotC, & Paizo: A Comparative History
D&D Pronunciation Guide
Million Dollar TTRPG Kickstarters
Tabletop RPG Podcast Hall of Fame
Eric Noah's Unofficial D&D 3rd Edition News
D&D in the Mainstream
D&D & RPG History
About Morrus
Log in
Register
What's new
Search
Search
Search titles only
By:
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Menu
Log in
Register
Install the app
Install
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*Dungeons & Dragons
5e Philosophy of System Mastery
JavaScript is disabled. For a better experience, please enable JavaScript in your browser before proceeding.
You are using an out of date browser. It may not display this or other websites correctly.
You should upgrade or use an
alternative browser
.
Reply to thread
Message
<blockquote data-quote="Guest 6801328" data-source="post: 7802066"><p>I see two different kinds of system mastery. One has to do with your build, and how you use that build in play. The other has to do with knowing the rules of the game, independent of particular classes and abilities, and knowing how to apply those rules in various situations.</p><p></p><p>I'm a fan of the latter, not the former. Perfect balance is an impossible goal, but I think the ideal should be that you make character choices based on what you think is fun and cool, and then the part you master is using that perfectly fine character in actual play.</p><p></p><p>The worst case outcome is when a new/novice player sits next to an optimizer and says, "Oh, that's cool...I want to do something like that." And the answer is, "Well, you can't because your character sucks."</p><p></p><p>Part of the reason I feel this way is that character options, no matter how many, are finite. But <em>game</em> options...what happens at the table...are infinite. If you create tons of character options, with a wide delta in effectiveness, everybody is just going to figure out and post the "best" combinations on the internet anyway. But you can't predict what's going to happen in somebody's game. </p><p></p><p>I remember when World of Warcraft changed from talent "trees" to a model where you just pick one of three talents every X levels, with no dependencies or prerequisites. The optimizers all screamed bloody murder about "catering to casuals" and the like. Blizzard's response was, essentially: "We have the data. Clearly 99% of you just go to elitistjerks.com and look up the best build and copy it. So don't give us any $%@^ about system mastery."</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Guest 6801328, post: 7802066"] I see two different kinds of system mastery. One has to do with your build, and how you use that build in play. The other has to do with knowing the rules of the game, independent of particular classes and abilities, and knowing how to apply those rules in various situations. I'm a fan of the latter, not the former. Perfect balance is an impossible goal, but I think the ideal should be that you make character choices based on what you think is fun and cool, and then the part you master is using that perfectly fine character in actual play. The worst case outcome is when a new/novice player sits next to an optimizer and says, "Oh, that's cool...I want to do something like that." And the answer is, "Well, you can't because your character sucks." Part of the reason I feel this way is that character options, no matter how many, are finite. But [I]game[/I] options...what happens at the table...are infinite. If you create tons of character options, with a wide delta in effectiveness, everybody is just going to figure out and post the "best" combinations on the internet anyway. But you can't predict what's going to happen in somebody's game. I remember when World of Warcraft changed from talent "trees" to a model where you just pick one of three talents every X levels, with no dependencies or prerequisites. The optimizers all screamed bloody murder about "catering to casuals" and the like. Blizzard's response was, essentially: "We have the data. Clearly 99% of you just go to elitistjerks.com and look up the best build and copy it. So don't give us any $%@^ about system mastery." [/QUOTE]
Insert quotes…
Verification
Post reply
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*Dungeons & Dragons
5e Philosophy of System Mastery
Top