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<blockquote data-quote="Tony Vargas" data-source="post: 7435881" data-attributes="member: 996">Necessary but not sufficient, is how I'd see it, at worst.&nbsp; Games need to be balanced to avoid being terrible, non-functional, or boring (like tic-tac-toe, above), but they can still be all three, in spite of being balanced.&nbsp; The greater the depth and scope the game attempts, the more important balance becomes to keep all those elements meaningful &amp; viable, and thus more than just window-dressing for a storyteller's backdrop or chaff for system masters to winnow away.&nbsp; RPGs often try for tremendous scope and have the potential for great depth of play by their very natures.&nbsp; Balance is thus critically important to deliver on that.&nbsp; If the game doesn't provide it, the players have to, by some sort of informal agreement or voluntary restraint (as in Freestyle RP), or the DM has to impose it by fiat (as in classic D&amp;D or 5e).&nbsp; Otherwise, so much of that potential depth &amp; scope is lost.&nbsp; What's left might still be pretty significant, though:&nbsp; put a group of equally-capable powergamers together to play 3.x/PF, and there's still a lot of game left for them to use, it's not just X-in-the-corner, O-in-the-center, every time.&nbsp; ;P</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Tony Vargas, post: 7435881, member: 996"] Necessary but not sufficient, is how I'd see it, at worst. Games need to be balanced to avoid being terrible, non-functional, or boring (like tic-tac-toe, above), but they can still be all three, in spite of being balanced. The greater the depth and scope the game attempts, the more important balance becomes to keep all those elements meaningful & viable, and thus more than just window-dressing for a storyteller's backdrop or chaff for system masters to winnow away. RPGs often try for tremendous scope and have the potential for great depth of play by their very natures. Balance is thus critically important to deliver on that. If the game doesn't provide it, the players have to, by some sort of informal agreement or voluntary restraint (as in Freestyle RP), or the DM has to impose it by fiat (as in classic D&D or 5e). Otherwise, so much of that potential depth & scope is lost. What's left might still be pretty significant, though: put a group of equally-capable powergamers together to play 3.x/PF, and there's still a lot of game left for them to use, it's not just X-in-the-corner, O-in-the-center, every time. ;P [/QUOTE]

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