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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Celebrim" data-source="post: 6095719" data-attributes="member: 4937">No, the older the RPG, the more baggage it tends to have and the easier it is to break it if you try.  Optimization is a problem with every system.  Every system that allows for varied characters, versimiltude to literary conventions, and freedom of expression is going to have balance problems.   The only way to address it from a rules perspective is take away real player choice.  The best you can do as a designer is try to avoid providing resources that can become the answer to everything.My 'house rules' are running at about 600 pages, and really I can foresee them now going over 1000 at some point.  Granted, they are now more of a complete system than addendums or ammendments, but keeping a rules system balanced isn't easy and I haven't met a DM worth his pizza who didn't feel that the rules he had for any system couldn't be improved or usefully extended.   Even if the rules were good, they might not perfectly suit the setting, narrative, or desires of the game master.If there are only a few avenues of abuse a player can make use of, then the system is probably too banal to be of much worth because it also limits the sorts of characters you can play.It's a really bad idea to try to use force to get players to play the characters you want them to play.  If the players defines characters in his head not by what they believe or what they feel, but by what they can do if you don't provide for those options then you are going to lose a player and maybe most of your players.  If the player wants to play a dinosaur rider that shoots laser beams from his eyes, you need to find out how to make that work as much as possible.  If you have a player that is a power gamer, the thing that is desirable in the character is that it is empowering and right out on the broken edge.   This is imaginative play at its heart.   The player wants to play a super hero and impose his will on things.   If you can't allow that at your table then you've got some fundamental problems.  A DM has to accept player empowerment.  It's only a problem when the other players don't like playing with the power gamer.   As the DM that's what you are really worried about avoiding.  If you are getting rolled by a player, then you are doing it wrong because you have all power in your hands.  There really isn't an excuse for not being able to challenge a player.   Yes, at times you should be tweaking the rules to improve balance, but slapping down every concept until its bland banality isn't going to make for a happy table in the long run.</blockquote>

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