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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Lizard" data-source="post: 3990843" data-attributes="member: 1054">Been reading Spycraft 2 (a game I'm starting to really like), and it got me thinking about this problem. They have core classes in that game that are almost transcendtally useless in melee combat, at least relative to combat-built characters (though there's lots of feats, etc, to buff them). The Hacker and the Scientist, to be precise. Now:Did people never play these character types?Did people play them, but hate/resent it because they were "needed" but no fun?Did people play and enjoy them despite their relative inability to aid in a fight? (At10th level, the Hacker gains some combat buffs for other players, but that's a long time to wait...)Class based gaming for the past 30-odd years has been based heavily on the "rotating spotlight" theory of balance, that it's OK to suck at one thing if you get to shine at something else. 4e is based on the idea that this is utter bollocks; everyone should be able to contribute meaningfully, if not equally, to every encounter and event in the game. Classes with 'solo specialities' (like Hackers/Netrunners) or pre-combat functions (Riggers, Scientists, Engineers) are not part of the design.This reminds me a lot of MMORPG design -- and no, this isn't a "4e rips off WoW!" post, at least not directly. Rather, prior to WoW, a leading rule of MMORPG game design was that tedium=balance. Most games were designed so that you had to wait long times for "spawn" or "rare drops", and that people would put up with 8 hour "camps" to get their "loot". WoW said "Screw that!", and, at least prior to high-end raiding, had almost all of the game accessible with minimum camping/hanging around doing nothing. It also did away with sacred cows like heavy death penalties. As we all know, it took off.So, it is possible 4e may be on to something (at least WRT class based systems, though all systems with strong niche protection tend to go to rotating spotlight) or it might be that Rotating Spotlight is popular for a reason, and that tabletop gamers prefer it to everyone on, all the time. People used to an RS style of play might have trouble adjusting to 4e style play, or they might love it. I guess we'll know in June...</blockquote>

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