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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Imaro" data-source="post: 5136270" data-attributes="member: 48965">I can't speak for RC but I honestly don't think the bias against game balance is totally rooted in a desire to compete with one's fellow players, though I do think many people are drawn to games (not necessarily talking about rpg's here) in which some measure of competition takes place and is measured with concrete indicators. One possibility is that there are actually people who enjoy the mini-game of creating better characters (the same way some enjoy the mini-game of grid-tactics). They enjoy finding combinations, powers, etc. to construct the character they enjoy.  However I think for many it is also born of a dislike of the "game" in an rpg super-ceding tropes, imagination, archetypes, genre conventions and so on that the game is supposedly based upon. I think this is especially particular to D&D because it is billed as the premier fantasy roleplaying game. The problem is that one expects that this game would allow you to play the numerous tropes you've read in most generic fantasy... but in the most recent editions...game balance, moreso than anything else, dictates that you cannot... at least without jumping through numerous hoops. As a counter example... In Exalted I can play a character with any trope, archetype or convention that would reasonably fit within the established world of Creation. Will everything be balanced?? Nope, but you will be able to play the character you imagine. For a more class based game we can look at Warhammer FRPG (2e), or Blue Rose. Both arguably class-based systems that accomodate a wide variety of their genre's tropes, conventions and archetypes in very different ways. Are they balanced... No. But again, you can play the character you imagine more readily. As far as D&D specifically, I think in 3.0 and 3.5 we were moving towards a class based system with the freedom in character creation to design the character you wanted to within the tropes of most fantasy, and with Star Wars Saga edition (talent trees, feats, classes and skills)... I really thought WotC was on this track and had it nearly perfected. In my mind 4e was going to be the culmination of the evolutionary path D&D seemed to be on... only it wasn't.</blockquote>

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