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5e Philosophy of System Mastery
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<blockquote data-quote="Tony Vargas" data-source="post: 7802192" data-attributes="member: 996"><p>6 of 1, half-dozen of the other, whether the imbalance breaks high or low isn't a hugely important difference. Rather, it's the magnitude of that gap between the trap options, whatever the theoretical 'balance' point may nominally be, and the 'game breakers' </p><p></p><p> System mastery is unavoidable - whatever the system, if you stick to it in the face of (unironically, even though, yeah, of course it's a game) 'gaming' that system, there will be rewards for system mastery. A robustly balanced game keeps those rewards slim. 5e doesn't particularly do that - like MM said, he's just not worrying about it, no so much dropping the ball as never picking it up in the first place, just, yep, it's a ball, have fun with it, it's not my window you'll be breaking - balance is something the DM can impose on 5e by avoiding optional rules, sticking to the prescribed pacing, and making rulings with relative PC contributions & desired challenges in mind.</p><p>But, 5e also doesn't particularly stick to the system when the system's being gamed, either. Rather, it kicks things to the DM with such accustomed frequency that the exercise of & rewards for system mastery are prettymuch at his sufferance. So the player who really wants to excel his peers would likely see more success by 'gaming' the DM than the System.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Tony Vargas, post: 7802192, member: 996"] 6 of 1, half-dozen of the other, whether the imbalance breaks high or low isn't a hugely important difference. Rather, it's the magnitude of that gap between the trap options, whatever the theoretical 'balance' point may nominally be, and the 'game breakers' System mastery is unavoidable - whatever the system, if you stick to it in the face of (unironically, even though, yeah, of course it's a game) 'gaming' that system, there will be rewards for system mastery. A robustly balanced game keeps those rewards slim. 5e doesn't particularly do that - like MM said, he's just not worrying about it, no so much dropping the ball as never picking it up in the first place, just, yep, it's a ball, have fun with it, it's not my window you'll be breaking - balance is something the DM can impose on 5e by avoiding optional rules, sticking to the prescribed pacing, and making rulings with relative PC contributions & desired challenges in mind. But, 5e also doesn't particularly stick to the system when the system's being gamed, either. Rather, it kicks things to the DM with such accustomed frequency that the exercise of & rewards for system mastery are prettymuch at his sufferance. So the player who really wants to excel his peers would likely see more success by 'gaming' the DM than the System. [/QUOTE]
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