Browsing my Dragon Magazine Archive, I've just come across an article by James M. Ward entitled, "Game Balance"... written back in 1978. (The Dragon #16, page 36. Or Vol III no 2).
Here's a few excerpts:
James Ward:
Game Balance, GAME balance, GAME BALANCE! I have heard this term loudly proclaimed by Gary Gygax, Rob Kuntz, and even a time or two by the very excellent editor of this magazine, Tim Kask. The theme for these expounders of “game balance” is almost always
the same: if a dungeon master runs a give-away game it can’t be a well run game and the same thing applies in the opposite direction of not giving enough to the players...
Getting back to the concept of “game balance” it seems to me that the above mentioned people want an even balance of players getting magic items and treasure so that in their games (which are excellent by the way) the player does not have an easy time of it or too hard a time (when they stay on their proper level). For this effect they want to make sure their castles do not have magic at the rate of a gold piece a dozen. Rob especially has always thought it highly humorous and slightly insane that I like magic more than gold and gems. The time has come to present a different concept (for all you long denounced and
ridiculed "Monty Hall" dungeon masters) “GAME EQUILIBRIUM”
In game equilibrium the judge does not care, and in fact likes his players to be walking magic stores. The treasure hordes in his castle usually contain some type of magic, with one difference being that the guarders of these hordes usually use the magic items they guard, example: when the iron golem is being hard pressed by several plus 3 weapons he breaks open one of the chests he was guarding and pulls out a plus 5 vorpal blade and starts swinging.
The above takes me to how the judge is going to keep his game from becoming too easy for his regular players. In game equilibrium while the judge does not care about the amount of magic his players get, he does care about the quality of his monsters... These points are just to make the wandering monsters tougher, another aspect of game equilibrium is the toughening up of the placed monsters. The equilibrium dungeon master shies away from the simple treasure guarded by a monster type room (which can become boring fast if that is what your castle is full of), he leans toward the device guarded (must figure it out to get the treasure) type room...
The final point to “game equilibrium” is what happens when your constant players get those great magic items... and start cleaning up in your castle. The key to stopping this situation is “imagination”. You start designing magic items that counteract the affects of the more powerful items on the magical charts... I do not want any reader to think that this type of thing should be the case with every treasure, but 8 or 9 of them on any given level not only makes more of a challenge for the player it is more fun for you.
The end result of all the things presented above is that the judge can have many magical treasures in his or her castle without creating monsterous player characters that are unkillable. So, for all you “Monty Hall" type judges, take heart; your day is coming!
###
Heh. Did their day come with 3e? Not exactly. Indeed, 3e puts stronger guidelines on treasure acquisition than AD&D did. However, eventual character power is higher than in AD&D. 20th level characters? Yes thank you! A big difference is that monsters continue to scale up in power... allowing more and more difficult encounters.
Cheers!
Here's a few excerpts:
James Ward:
Game Balance, GAME balance, GAME BALANCE! I have heard this term loudly proclaimed by Gary Gygax, Rob Kuntz, and even a time or two by the very excellent editor of this magazine, Tim Kask. The theme for these expounders of “game balance” is almost always
the same: if a dungeon master runs a give-away game it can’t be a well run game and the same thing applies in the opposite direction of not giving enough to the players...
Getting back to the concept of “game balance” it seems to me that the above mentioned people want an even balance of players getting magic items and treasure so that in their games (which are excellent by the way) the player does not have an easy time of it or too hard a time (when they stay on their proper level). For this effect they want to make sure their castles do not have magic at the rate of a gold piece a dozen. Rob especially has always thought it highly humorous and slightly insane that I like magic more than gold and gems. The time has come to present a different concept (for all you long denounced and
ridiculed "Monty Hall" dungeon masters) “GAME EQUILIBRIUM”
In game equilibrium the judge does not care, and in fact likes his players to be walking magic stores. The treasure hordes in his castle usually contain some type of magic, with one difference being that the guarders of these hordes usually use the magic items they guard, example: when the iron golem is being hard pressed by several plus 3 weapons he breaks open one of the chests he was guarding and pulls out a plus 5 vorpal blade and starts swinging.
The above takes me to how the judge is going to keep his game from becoming too easy for his regular players. In game equilibrium while the judge does not care about the amount of magic his players get, he does care about the quality of his monsters... These points are just to make the wandering monsters tougher, another aspect of game equilibrium is the toughening up of the placed monsters. The equilibrium dungeon master shies away from the simple treasure guarded by a monster type room (which can become boring fast if that is what your castle is full of), he leans toward the device guarded (must figure it out to get the treasure) type room...
The final point to “game equilibrium” is what happens when your constant players get those great magic items... and start cleaning up in your castle. The key to stopping this situation is “imagination”. You start designing magic items that counteract the affects of the more powerful items on the magical charts... I do not want any reader to think that this type of thing should be the case with every treasure, but 8 or 9 of them on any given level not only makes more of a challenge for the player it is more fun for you.
The end result of all the things presented above is that the judge can have many magical treasures in his or her castle without creating monsterous player characters that are unkillable. So, for all you “Monty Hall" type judges, take heart; your day is coming!
###
Heh. Did their day come with 3e? Not exactly. Indeed, 3e puts stronger guidelines on treasure acquisition than AD&D did. However, eventual character power is higher than in AD&D. 20th level characters? Yes thank you! A big difference is that monsters continue to scale up in power... allowing more and more difficult encounters.
Cheers!
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