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Message: <blockquote data-quote="WizarDru" data-source="post: 591744" data-attributes="member: 151">I think you need to go back and read Meardwyn's message and then consider that, and specifically, look at answering his question.The rules are a common frame of reference to be used in wide and diverse ways.  Since you're using the term 'balance' to refer to several exceedingly different topics, it's hard to answer your question in all but the most broad or extremely specific ways.Moreover, you need to be more specific about your question.  When you ask "Is game balance really necessary in an RPG?", you don't specify the most important part, namely: "necessary for what?"  Do you mean:<ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">"necessary for everyone to enjoy the game"?  </li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">"necessary for everyone to enjoy the game equally?"  </li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">"necessary to be considered a good example of RPG design?"</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">"necessary for the game to fulfill it's intended design purpose?"</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">"necessary to facilitate a game with the least amount of effort?"</li> </ul>Without knowing the actual meaning of the question, any answer you get will be similarly confused.  You may have meant the first question, but you got an answer on the assumption of the third.In general, the rules do not have to be balanced in the sense that each character has a player of equal ability to perform actions within the game, and to be an 'event enabler'.  A combination of a good DM and players can overcome the limitations of any RPG's lack of balance.  Conversely, no matter how good the ruleset, it can be turned on it's ear by those who play it.  Maerdwyn's point, I think, was that you can't point to things like 'challenging encounters' as a sign of balance; it's voodoo.  RPGs are an odd hybrid of wargame, simulation and theatre.  Trying to pinpoint the quality of a game session based on the underlying system used to present it is folly.  Some groups will intentionally play a game without balance, often circumventing established checks and balances within the rules to do so.  Leave alone the fact that precious few can agree on how balanced a particular game is.  One merely need click to the Rules Forum to see how some things are argued constantly, such as the Harm, Haste, Archer and Ranger debates.That said, the amount of work a group has to perform to compensate for rules that aren't balanced, IMHO, reflects on it's desirability.  If I perceive an imbalance in a game, and my group and I work around it or compensate for it, then I consider that less desirable than a system that doesn't make me do that.  But even that doesn't tell you anything, since some groups don't care about that, either.</blockquote>

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