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<blockquote data-quote="pemerton" data-source="post: 5136839" data-attributes="member: 42582">There's another issue also.In 4e, combat encounters have an inherent dramatic pacing - initially the monsters seem to be winning, but then the PCs come back from behind, as their conditional resources (second wind, encounter/daily powers, etc) kick in.So all the PCs participating all the time doesn't only serve the (negative) goal of avoiding player boredom - it also serves the (positive) goal of having all the players participate in the drama of the game.This might be a feature that you would want to preserve in the move to a dungeon-based game. I assume that it's not impossible to do it in a &quot;spotlight sharing&quot; model of balancing PCs, but it might be hard. For example, if the dungeon is designed so that initially the PCs face adversity but then triumph at the end (spreading 4e's dramatic pacing over the adventure rather than the encounter) then you might want to think about the posssibility that one PC's spotlight time occurs only at the point of maximum adversity (and hence they're having a hard time of it), while another PC's spotlight time occurs only at the ponit of triump (and hence they get a disproportionate share of the glory).One way to handle this would be to vary the sequence of challenges from adventure to adventure, so it's never the same PC stuck at the same point of the dramatic sequence. But then, as far as dramatic sequencing is concerned, you're balancing your game not over the adventure but over the campaign.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="pemerton, post: 5136839, member: 42582"] There's another issue also. In 4e, combat encounters have an inherent dramatic pacing - initially the monsters seem to be winning, but then the PCs come back from behind, as their conditional resources (second wind, encounter/daily powers, etc) kick in. So all the PCs participating all the time doesn't only serve the (negative) goal of avoiding player boredom - it also serves the (positive) goal of having all the players participate in the drama of the game. This might be a feature that you would want to preserve in the move to a dungeon-based game. I assume that it's not impossible to do it in a "spotlight sharing" model of balancing PCs, but it might be hard. For example, if the dungeon is designed so that initially the PCs face adversity but then triumph at the end (spreading 4e's dramatic pacing over the adventure rather than the encounter) then you might want to think about the posssibility that one PC's spotlight time occurs only at the point of maximum adversity (and hence they're having a hard time of it), while another PC's spotlight time occurs only at the ponit of triump (and hence they get a disproportionate share of the glory). One way to handle this would be to vary the sequence of challenges from adventure to adventure, so it's never the same PC stuck at the same point of the dramatic sequence. But then, as far as dramatic sequencing is concerned, you're balancing your game not over the adventure but over the campaign. [/QUOTE]

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