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<blockquote data-quote="steenan" data-source="post: 6962789" data-attributes="member: 23240">I like optimizing and, in general, playing with mechanics.If various options available in a system gave no mechanical benefits, I would ask why are they even here. Just give the setting information and let the players describe their characters based on that, without listing mechanical items with no mechanical meaning.If, on the other hand, they gave mechanical benefits that would be well balanced, I would rejoice. Having multiple options that are different, but equally good, is the perfect mechanical environment for me. If the options are unbalanced, there is no much real choice left - after removing ones that break the game and ones that are just worse than other choices, only a few possibilities are available. A balanced game has no &quot;must have&quot; and &quot;never take it&quot; choices.It's worth remembering that having balanced (but mechanically different) options is not anathema to optimization. One always optimizes for something specific (goal), with specific limitations (bounds). So if the options are balanced, they are not globally better or worse, but they are better or worse for specific uses. That's exactly what I like to play with.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="steenan, post: 6962789, member: 23240"] I like optimizing and, in general, playing with mechanics. If various options available in a system gave no mechanical benefits, I would ask why are they even here. Just give the setting information and let the players describe their characters based on that, without listing mechanical items with no mechanical meaning. If, on the other hand, they gave mechanical benefits that would be well balanced, I would rejoice. Having multiple options that are different, but equally good, is the perfect mechanical environment for me. If the options are unbalanced, there is no much real choice left - after removing ones that break the game and ones that are just worse than other choices, only a few possibilities are available. A balanced game has no "must have" and "never take it" choices. It's worth remembering that having balanced (but mechanically different) options is not anathema to optimization. One always optimizes for something specific (goal), with specific limitations (bounds). So if the options are balanced, they are not globally better or worse, but they are better or worse for specific uses. That's exactly what I like to play with. [/QUOTE]

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