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General Tabletop Discussion
*Dungeons & Dragons
The Early "Design Principles" of D&D, and their Lasting Legacy
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<blockquote data-quote="Willie the Duck" data-source="post: 8595756" data-attributes="member: 6799660"><p>I think some of these balances were more reasonable and more effective than others. </p><p></p><p>The fighting man/magic user use balance makes sense as something coming from wargames would come up with -- MUs were artillery and you needed to protect them and you didn't always get to bring them to bear (but when you did...) and so on. The FM/MU advancement balance works if you have multiple characters and any given night you are deciding whether to roll in heavy with your Fighter 4 and bust heads or try to advance your latest MU to level 3. "Rich get richer" in general again works (or at least have a good explanation) if you have lots of chances to make characters. In that situation, it ends up being like coming up with an advantageous starting spot in Settlers of Catan or Civilization -- a nice little easy(ier)-play-through, but next time, someone else will get it. Also probably was a more reasonable situation when both death and success are widely determined by things other than the stats or classes available (the slime mold any character could run into, the magic item distribution), and so on. I think a lot of it was predicated on playstyles a lot of people didn't really want to play (and tended to do so, via houserules), but I can understand how most came to be.</p><p></p><p>Other things, well.. okay, you're point about Gygax and Thieves is spot on, but isn't the only example. Within the demihuman list, elves and half-elves seem to have the most benefits, yet they have the highest level limits and most classes available to them. Swords and bows had far-and-away advantages on the weapon damage charts (and longswords an unprecedented advantage on magic item drops). Multiclassing in general had disproportionate benefit depending on which classes were included (1e F-MU could cast in armor, but anything-thieves needed to strip down to do most thief-like activities and clerics still had weapon limits. None of this seemed to be situations where the most beneficial selections got the most stringent requirements or largest opportunity costs. They just seemed like designer favorites.</p><p></p><p>Given that both of the above were placed under the same umbrella of done for balance, it's easy to see why all of them can often get viewed with the same distrust.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Willie the Duck, post: 8595756, member: 6799660"] I think some of these balances were more reasonable and more effective than others. The fighting man/magic user use balance makes sense as something coming from wargames would come up with -- MUs were artillery and you needed to protect them and you didn't always get to bring them to bear (but when you did...) and so on. The FM/MU advancement balance works if you have multiple characters and any given night you are deciding whether to roll in heavy with your Fighter 4 and bust heads or try to advance your latest MU to level 3. "Rich get richer" in general again works (or at least have a good explanation) if you have lots of chances to make characters. In that situation, it ends up being like coming up with an advantageous starting spot in Settlers of Catan or Civilization -- a nice little easy(ier)-play-through, but next time, someone else will get it. Also probably was a more reasonable situation when both death and success are widely determined by things other than the stats or classes available (the slime mold any character could run into, the magic item distribution), and so on. I think a lot of it was predicated on playstyles a lot of people didn't really want to play (and tended to do so, via houserules), but I can understand how most came to be. Other things, well.. okay, you're point about Gygax and Thieves is spot on, but isn't the only example. Within the demihuman list, elves and half-elves seem to have the most benefits, yet they have the highest level limits and most classes available to them. Swords and bows had far-and-away advantages on the weapon damage charts (and longswords an unprecedented advantage on magic item drops). Multiclassing in general had disproportionate benefit depending on which classes were included (1e F-MU could cast in armor, but anything-thieves needed to strip down to do most thief-like activities and clerics still had weapon limits. None of this seemed to be situations where the most beneficial selections got the most stringent requirements or largest opportunity costs. They just seemed like designer favorites. Given that both of the above were placed under the same umbrella of done for balance, it's easy to see why all of them can often get viewed with the same distrust. [/QUOTE]
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