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<blockquote data-quote="Manbearcat" data-source="post: 6403171" data-attributes="member: 6696971">Balance is a paramount concern in any game where the players (GM included) expect for there to be relative parity between participants' ability to affect the outcome of micro-conflicts and impose their will on the trajectory of the game's evolving plot. Balance can be expressed solely at the outset of the game (the PC build stage for TTRPGs) with power level disparity evolving organically as the game progresses.&nbsp; The system can be organized such that it (intentionally) tightly constrains balance throughout the entirety of the play experience.&nbsp; The system can be organized such that the PC archetypes are unmistakably unbalanced within the shared fiction, but the players of the lower tier characters possess metagame assets which level the playing field.&nbsp; The system might promote, or the GM may him/herself possess, principles which work toward (primarily if not exclusively) framing the PC(s) into archetypal conflicts that they can handle (this becomes more difficult in cooperative group games where noticable PC asset - especially breadth&nbsp; [MENTION=4937]Celebrim[/MENTION] 's primary point - imbalance exists).If you don't care about these things so much, or you feel the GM has mandate to &quot;impose spotlight sharing&quot; by circumventing the action resolution mechanics thereby dictating outcomes, and/or you have concerns that supersede the priority in the first paragraph, then there are plenty of systems and groups that cater to those interests.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Manbearcat, post: 6403171, member: 6696971"] Balance is a paramount concern in any game where the players (GM included) expect for there to be relative parity between participants' ability to affect the outcome of micro-conflicts and impose their will on the trajectory of the game's evolving plot. Balance can be expressed solely at the outset of the game (the PC build stage for TTRPGs) with power level disparity evolving organically as the game progresses. The system can be organized such that it (intentionally) tightly constrains balance throughout the entirety of the play experience. The system can be organized such that the PC archetypes are unmistakably unbalanced within the shared fiction, but the players of the lower tier characters possess metagame assets which level the playing field. The system might promote, or the GM may him/herself possess, principles which work toward (primarily if not exclusively) framing the PC(s) into archetypal conflicts that they can handle (this becomes more difficult in cooperative group games where noticable PC asset - especially breadth [MENTION=4937]Celebrim[/MENTION] 's primary point - imbalance exists). If you don't care about these things so much, or you feel the GM has mandate to "impose spotlight sharing" by circumventing the action resolution mechanics thereby dictating outcomes, and/or you have concerns that supersede the priority in the first paragraph, then there are plenty of systems and groups that cater to those interests. [/QUOTE]

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