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Do you see Fighter players at your own table?
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<blockquote data-quote="TheSword" data-source="post: 9057251" data-attributes="member: 6879661"><p>Balance in RPGs is a worthy goal for designers, but you shouldn’t let balance take precedence over fun and playability. It’s one goal but not the driving goal.</p><p></p><p>A good example of this is in W40K which has constant competitive testing between factions by millions of players but also semi-official tournaments. The company in recent years takes great care to balance armies against each other. The problem with this two fold… we have different ways of playing game and an extremely complex system with millions of potential combinations. In roleplaying as it is in many other situation, perfection is the enemy of good.</p><p></p><p>One particular army’s unit might be completely reasonable and interesting in normal play but in a particular circumstance against a particular unit, or in combination with another unit or power it might become particularly good. Problem is, with 20+ factions, multiple sub factions and the ability to combine factions on the same team the potential match ups are amazing. Secondly something might me perfectly fine in an army but some players - particularly tournaments like to maximize a particularly unit or ability and take it in unusual numbers.</p><p></p><p>The danger is that by trying to solve problems in extremes and corner cases, you do a disservice to home games and exclude fun, interesting and playable elements which would otherwise be fine. You can’t design a game to cater to 5% of the players.</p><p></p><p>Similarly D&D and games like it have so many moving parts and combinations in order to make it balanced you often end up being reductive (e.g 4e). Rules get condensed and homogenized and we end up fixating far too much on combat - because it’s easier to regulate and more crunch heavy. The higher the level the more possible combinations and likelihood of corner cases.</p><p></p><p>Balance is a good thing, nobody wants to be unintentionally sidelined. What you shouldn’t do is try and balance the game against coffee-locks, sorcadins and bladesigners.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="TheSword, post: 9057251, member: 6879661"] Balance in RPGs is a worthy goal for designers, but you shouldn’t let balance take precedence over fun and playability. It’s one goal but not the driving goal. A good example of this is in W40K which has constant competitive testing between factions by millions of players but also semi-official tournaments. The company in recent years takes great care to balance armies against each other. The problem with this two fold… we have different ways of playing game and an extremely complex system with millions of potential combinations. In roleplaying as it is in many other situation, perfection is the enemy of good. One particular army’s unit might be completely reasonable and interesting in normal play but in a particular circumstance against a particular unit, or in combination with another unit or power it might become particularly good. Problem is, with 20+ factions, multiple sub factions and the ability to combine factions on the same team the potential match ups are amazing. Secondly something might me perfectly fine in an army but some players - particularly tournaments like to maximize a particularly unit or ability and take it in unusual numbers. The danger is that by trying to solve problems in extremes and corner cases, you do a disservice to home games and exclude fun, interesting and playable elements which would otherwise be fine. You can’t design a game to cater to 5% of the players. Similarly D&D and games like it have so many moving parts and combinations in order to make it balanced you often end up being reductive (e.g 4e). Rules get condensed and homogenized and we end up fixating far too much on combat - because it’s easier to regulate and more crunch heavy. The higher the level the more possible combinations and likelihood of corner cases. Balance is a good thing, nobody wants to be unintentionally sidelined. What you shouldn’t do is try and balance the game against coffee-locks, sorcadins and bladesigners. [/QUOTE]
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