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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Deset Gled" data-source="post: 9585714" data-attributes="member: 7808">Hot take: A discussion of balance tools in RPGs is the best non-political* example of "privilege" I can think of.Any time you played a game and had fun without needing all the balance tools in the game rules, without the DM doing work to balance the party, or without the players putting effort into balance, it's not because those things weren't needed.  It's because you were privileged to have a situation where they were already present to the level needed without any extra work. Sometimes that's because the (spoken or unspoken) social contracts in the group solved the problems.  Sometimes it's because the tools were seamless enough in the rules design that no one noticed them. Sometimes that happens because the players were simply happy enough with the amount of agency they had.In any case, if "balance" wasn't needed for you to enjoy the game: that's great for you!  But the fundamental fact is that just because it worked for you doesn't mean that your individual solutions will work for all groups.  And generally speaking, the less effort you have to put into balance, the less aware you will be of why the balance in the group is working.  You were privileged to have it work without any effort, but you cannot claim that what worked for your group was universal, especially if you have no understanding of why it worked for your group.  And even if you did, telling other groups to use your method of making people happy would just be another example of a balance tool.*Maybe not the right word, but close enough.</blockquote>

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