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<blockquote data-quote="EzekielRaiden" data-source="post: 8683191" data-attributes="member: 6790260">The main issue here is...actually doing this is hard. Like, one of the hardest problems in game design. Creating an environment that is strategically deep and choice-rich is extremely difficult. The vast majority of the time, you will by accident create a dominant strategy, even when you don't want to. This issue will only be exacerbated if the game's systems are heavy on obfuscation, doubly so if the game is lacking in solid, comprehensive DM tools and advice.The formal design term for this situation is &quot;asymmetrical design,&quot; though some folks like to use the incredibly misleading term &quot;dynamic imbalance&quot; instead. (&quot;Dynamic imbalance&quot; is not actually better if it is imbalanced; instead it is better if it is balanced in such a way that it leads to transitive loops and non-trivial comparisons, aka, balance within an asymmetrical system, rather than imbalance in a symmetrical system.) And asymmetrical design is hard! That's why few games go for absolute asymmetry, and instead leverage overall symmetry (e.g. 9th level spellcasters are all highly symmetrical overall) augmented with chosen asymmetry.That's the heart of the &quot;I pay designers to design, not so that I must then re-design their work all the time&quot; criticism of 5e. Every airplane requires some adjustments in flight, that's fine; what is not fine is having to play the equivalent of an F-117 Nighthawk where it can ONLY fly because of constant, continuous fly-by-wire adjustment.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="EzekielRaiden, post: 8683191, member: 6790260"] The main issue here is...actually doing this is hard. Like, one of the hardest problems in game design. Creating an environment that is strategically deep and choice-rich is extremely difficult. The vast majority of the time, you will by accident create a dominant strategy, even when you don't want to. This issue will only be exacerbated if the game's systems are heavy on obfuscation, doubly so if the game is lacking in solid, comprehensive DM tools and advice. The formal design term for this situation is "asymmetrical design," though some folks like to use the incredibly misleading term "dynamic imbalance" instead. ("Dynamic imbalance" is not actually better if it is imbalanced; instead it is better if it is balanced in such a way that it leads to transitive loops and non-trivial comparisons, aka, balance within an asymmetrical system, rather than imbalance in a symmetrical system.) And asymmetrical design is hard! That's why few games go for absolute asymmetry, and instead leverage overall symmetry (e.g. 9th level spellcasters are all highly symmetrical overall) augmented with chosen asymmetry. That's the heart of the "I pay designers to design, not so that I must then re-design their work all the time" criticism of 5e. Every airplane requires some adjustments in flight, that's fine; what is not fine is having to play the equivalent of an F-117 Nighthawk where it can ONLY fly because of constant, continuous fly-by-wire adjustment. [/QUOTE]

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