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<blockquote data-quote="Crazy Jerome" data-source="post: 5671950" data-attributes="member: 54877">Backing away to a more abstract look at balance, supppose you have a system where all damage is done on a d8. There are no mods that change this range. That is, you can't get d8+3, roll an 8, and get 11 damage. You might have mods that make higher rolls more likely than lower ones, or vice versa.&nbsp;When balancing the system, it becomes apparent that the system can't really handle results of 1, 2, or 8--at least not very well. So for Abstract D&amp;D 1E, you tighten it down with mods, floors and caps, and other such tricks so that even though you roll a d8, the practical result is 3 through 7. This leads to fun fights. In some ways, it is a lot better than Early Prototype Basic Abstract D&amp;D which left in the full d8 possibilities, but expected people to live with it. OTOH, Early Prototype was less balanced, but more interesting than Abstract 1E.&nbsp;Practical concerns may make it hard to change this. However, if you can change it so that the full d8 is available in Abstract 2E, while preserving most balance and keeping most of the interest--this will generally be a good course. You won't keep it all, because part of the &quot;interest&quot; in Early Prototype was dealing with the consequences of lack of balance. Maybe when you have done the best you can, you'll still have to exclude the 1 result. But adding that 2 and 8 will be valuable.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Crazy Jerome, post: 5671950, member: 54877"] Backing away to a more abstract look at balance, supppose you have a system where all damage is done on a d8. There are no mods that change this range. That is, you can't get d8+3, roll an 8, and get 11 damage. You might have mods that make higher rolls more likely than lower ones, or vice versa. When balancing the system, it becomes apparent that the system can't really handle results of 1, 2, or 8--at least not very well. So for Abstract D&D 1E, you tighten it down with mods, floors and caps, and other such tricks so that even though you roll a d8, the practical result is 3 through 7. This leads to fun fights. In some ways, it is a lot better than Early Prototype Basic Abstract D&D which left in the full d8 possibilities, but expected people to live with it. OTOH, Early Prototype was less balanced, but more interesting than Abstract 1E. Practical concerns may make it hard to change this. However, if you can change it so that the full d8 is available in Abstract 2E, while preserving [B]most[/B] balance and keeping [B]most[/B] of the interest--this will generally be a good course. You won't keep it all, because part of the "interest" in Early Prototype was dealing with the consequences of lack of balance. Maybe when you have done the best you can, you'll still have to exclude the 1 result. But adding that 2 and 8 will be valuable. [/QUOTE]

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