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<blockquote data-quote="EzekielRaiden" data-source="post: 8698397" data-attributes="member: 6790260">What is balance, in the TTRPG sense? It is:<ol>
<li data-xf-list-type="ol">Defining the purpose and intended experience of play in clear and useful language,</li>
<li data-xf-list-type="ol">Forming specific, testable design goals based on the previous definition,</li>
<li data-xf-list-type="ol">Writing provisional rules which seek to implement those design goals,</li>
<li data-xf-list-type="ol">Setting ranges of acceptable performance for meeting those design goals,</li>
<li data-xf-list-type="ol">Performing rigorous, thorough testing, preferably statistical in nature, </li>
<li data-xf-list-type="ol">Modifying the rules from step 3 where they fail to fall within the ranges from step 4,</li>
<li data-xf-list-type="ol">Repeating steps 3-6 until no further areas remain which are outside the parameters, OR until you come to believe the design goal you set is not feasible, at which point, return to step 2 and revise that goal, then proceed as before.</li>
</ol>Any game which performs these functions will, by definition, be balanced. This does not guarantee that it will be a good game, nor a game that is enjoyable. Those qualities are bound up in the decisions the designer must make, that is, they are about making wise design choices and correctly identifying what players value about the gameplay experience.Balance cannot make a poor game idea good. But imbalance can make a great game idea fail. That is the crux of design: you must have an idea worth pursuing and a solid execution of that idea. Stumble in either part and you lose.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="EzekielRaiden, post: 8698397, member: 6790260"] What is balance, in the TTRPG sense? It is: [LIST=1] [*]Defining the purpose and intended experience of play in clear and useful language, [*]Forming specific, testable design goals based on the previous definition, [*]Writing provisional rules which seek to implement those design goals, [*]Setting ranges of acceptable performance for meeting those design goals, [*]Performing rigorous, thorough testing, preferably statistical in nature, [*]Modifying the rules from step 3 where they fail to fall within the ranges from step 4, [*]Repeating steps 3-6 until no further areas remain which are outside the parameters, OR until you come to believe the design goal you set is not feasible, at which point, return to step 2 and revise that goal, then proceed as before. [/LIST] Any game which performs these functions will, by definition, be balanced. This does not guarantee that it will be a good game, nor a game that is enjoyable. Those qualities are bound up in the decisions the designer must make, that is, they are about making wise design choices and correctly identifying what players value [I]about[/I] the gameplay experience. Balance cannot make a poor game idea good. But imbalance can make a great game idea fail. That is the crux of design: you must have an idea worth pursuing and a solid execution of that idea. Stumble in either part and you lose. [/QUOTE]

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