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Do DM's feel that Sharpshooter & Great Weapon Master overpowered?
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<blockquote data-quote="pemerton" data-source="post: 6923416" data-attributes="member: 42582"><p>I don't think it's a significant issue in "free descriptor" systems like HeroWars/Quest, or Maelstrom Storytelling. This is probably even moreso in very light free descriptor systems like <a href="http://catchyourhare.com/files/Cthulhu%20Dark.pdf" target="_blank">Cthulhu Dark</a>.</p><p></p><p>Because Marvel Heroic RP comes pretty close to being a free descriptor system, I don't think it's a big problem in that game either - MHRP also has mechanics that come very close to being self-balancing across PCs that have smaller or larger numbers.</p><p></p><p>For different reasons, I don't think it's an issue in Burning Wheel in the same way as it can be in D&D, because in BW mechanical effectiveness in action resolution isn't the only thing, and often isn't even the main thing, that determines a player's impact on the shared fiction.</p><p></p><p>Flipping things around: I think that there are certain, distinctive features of D&D - it's hard to impact the fiction except by succeeding on action resolution; a given PC's action resolution capabilities are often built up out of very granular micro-elements (eg a feat list, a spell list, etc); there are many complex interactions between members of those micro-elements, which makes action resolution effectiveness very sensitive to particular combinations of such elements; and probably other stuff that I'm not thinking of at the moment - that make it especially vulnerable to this issue.</p><p></p><p>The games that don't have this problem to the same extent still have options. It's just that those options don't tend to change mechanical effectiveness; rather, they tend to change the relationship between the character and the details of the shared fiction.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="pemerton, post: 6923416, member: 42582"] I don't think it's a significant issue in "free descriptor" systems like HeroWars/Quest, or Maelstrom Storytelling. This is probably even moreso in very light free descriptor systems like [url=http://catchyourhare.com/files/Cthulhu%20Dark.pdf]Cthulhu Dark[/url]. Because Marvel Heroic RP comes pretty close to being a free descriptor system, I don't think it's a big problem in that game either - MHRP also has mechanics that come very close to being self-balancing across PCs that have smaller or larger numbers. For different reasons, I don't think it's an issue in Burning Wheel in the same way as it can be in D&D, because in BW mechanical effectiveness in action resolution isn't the only thing, and often isn't even the main thing, that determines a player's impact on the shared fiction. Flipping things around: I think that there are certain, distinctive features of D&D - it's hard to impact the fiction except by succeeding on action resolution; a given PC's action resolution capabilities are often built up out of very granular micro-elements (eg a feat list, a spell list, etc); there are many complex interactions between members of those micro-elements, which makes action resolution effectiveness very sensitive to particular combinations of such elements; and probably other stuff that I'm not thinking of at the moment - that make it especially vulnerable to this issue. The games that don't have this problem to the same extent still have options. It's just that those options don't tend to change mechanical effectiveness; rather, they tend to change the relationship between the character and the details of the shared fiction. [/QUOTE]
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Do DM's feel that Sharpshooter & Great Weapon Master overpowered?
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