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Do you really want dials and options?
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<blockquote data-quote="Crazy Jerome" data-source="post: 5771248" data-attributes="member: 54877"><p>I want dials and options properly executed. I don't want them haphazardly executed. The former makes pretty much everyone at least satisfied, and many happy. The latter merely ticks off everyone but those viewing the game through rose-colored glasses.</p><p> </p><p><strong>Dials</strong></p><p> </p><p>A proper dial has these properties: It can easily be turned by the group (or sometimes only the DM). It is clear what it does when you turn it, because it is built in and threaded through the system, and has set parameters. Turning actually does something that some groups want (that is, you don't want largely useless dials, or dials that have some largely useless settings). A dial can have a default setting that can be anywhere from "off" to "all the way up" but is often somewhere in between. And finally, a given game can only have so many dials before the game stops becoming a game and turns into a "framework". Choose wisely, and you might need to leave out some otherwise borderline useful one to keep the confusion to a minimum.</p><p> </p><p>As a side effect of all this, dials will seldom be perfect for a given group at a given setting. The dial gets you in the vicinity of the kind of game you want. You then either accept the differences and roll with it, or house rule/tweak further as desired.</p><p> </p><p>A good example of a useful dial would be establishing the amount of background/craft/perform/profession importance in the ruleset. Even though people vary on how much they want, if they want a set amount of one of those things, they probably want roughly the same amount of the rest of them. </p><p> </p><p><strong>Options</strong></p><p> </p><p>A proper option has these properties: You either use it or you don't as a package, and it really doesn't matter mechanically to anything else in the game. (Exception, you might have some simple tiers that are clear in context. If you use the "psionics" option, then you might have some other options that only have any meaning if "psionics" is available.) Some options are mutually exclusive, either going into a particular "slot" that will only fit one thing, or are "loosely exclusive" because they can theoretically work together somewhat, but don't work well together. (That is, you can do these latter ones if you are prepared to put in some work.) Unlike dials, you can add options later, provided that you've made the first options sufficiently modular in the first place. (The 4E roles are good examples of this property--start with two leaders for example, but can add more later.) </p><p> </p><p>Options are also often not perfect as is, but you have those same choice as with dials of rolling with it as "good enough" or tweaking it yourself.</p><p> </p><p><strong>Switches</strong></p><p> </p><p>If something is very simple, and seems to have some of the properties of both a dial and an option, it might be a "switch". That is, it is something you flip individually, but what this does to the rest of the game is probably hard to predict, if you flip enough of them. A lot of 3E and 4E house rules that include/exclude specific things are like this. Obviously, people can house rule switches anywhere they want, but it doesn't hurt to include critical ones explicitly where useful (and to thus reserve the options and dials for the big stuff).</p><p> </p><p><strong>Conclusion</strong></p><p> </p><p>Use things as they are meant to be used, or don't use them at all. Exception-based design was done more or less properly with monsters (within the limits of having the DDI but still needing to produce monster books). And it serves its purpose well, making monsters easy to run out the book. It isn't quite perfect, but it is very good. But making a seperate list of powers for every class, with a lot of redundant overlap under slightly different names and effects, as "exception-based design" was really just ad hoc lists called "exception-based design". No surprise, a lot of people don't like it or the side effects from it. And nearly all the flaws in the monster version was where it was a bit too much like the class power version. The difference in monsters was they weren't afraid to make some things common.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Crazy Jerome, post: 5771248, member: 54877"] I want dials and options properly executed. I don't want them haphazardly executed. The former makes pretty much everyone at least satisfied, and many happy. The latter merely ticks off everyone but those viewing the game through rose-colored glasses. [B]Dials[/B] A proper dial has these properties: It can easily be turned by the group (or sometimes only the DM). It is clear what it does when you turn it, because it is built in and threaded through the system, and has set parameters. Turning actually does something that some groups want (that is, you don't want largely useless dials, or dials that have some largely useless settings). A dial can have a default setting that can be anywhere from "off" to "all the way up" but is often somewhere in between. And finally, a given game can only have so many dials before the game stops becoming a game and turns into a "framework". Choose wisely, and you might need to leave out some otherwise borderline useful one to keep the confusion to a minimum. As a side effect of all this, dials will seldom be perfect for a given group at a given setting. The dial gets you in the vicinity of the kind of game you want. You then either accept the differences and roll with it, or house rule/tweak further as desired. A good example of a useful dial would be establishing the amount of background/craft/perform/profession importance in the ruleset. Even though people vary on how much they want, if they want a set amount of one of those things, they probably want roughly the same amount of the rest of them. [B]Options[/B] A proper option has these properties: You either use it or you don't as a package, and it really doesn't matter mechanically to anything else in the game. (Exception, you might have some simple tiers that are clear in context. If you use the "psionics" option, then you might have some other options that only have any meaning if "psionics" is available.) Some options are mutually exclusive, either going into a particular "slot" that will only fit one thing, or are "loosely exclusive" because they can theoretically work together somewhat, but don't work well together. (That is, you can do these latter ones if you are prepared to put in some work.) Unlike dials, you can add options later, provided that you've made the first options sufficiently modular in the first place. (The 4E roles are good examples of this property--start with two leaders for example, but can add more later.) Options are also often not perfect as is, but you have those same choice as with dials of rolling with it as "good enough" or tweaking it yourself. [B]Switches[/B] If something is very simple, and seems to have some of the properties of both a dial and an option, it might be a "switch". That is, it is something you flip individually, but what this does to the rest of the game is probably hard to predict, if you flip enough of them. A lot of 3E and 4E house rules that include/exclude specific things are like this. Obviously, people can house rule switches anywhere they want, but it doesn't hurt to include critical ones explicitly where useful (and to thus reserve the options and dials for the big stuff). [B]Conclusion[/B] Use things as they are meant to be used, or don't use them at all. Exception-based design was done more or less properly with monsters (within the limits of having the DDI but still needing to produce monster books). And it serves its purpose well, making monsters easy to run out the book. It isn't quite perfect, but it is very good. But making a seperate list of powers for every class, with a lot of redundant overlap under slightly different names and effects, as "exception-based design" was really just ad hoc lists called "exception-based design". No surprise, a lot of people don't like it or the side effects from it. And nearly all the flaws in the monster version was where it was a bit too much like the class power version. The difference in monsters was they weren't afraid to make some things common. [/QUOTE]
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