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TTRPGs: broken mechanics vs. abusive players
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<blockquote data-quote="Thomas Shey" data-source="post: 8941837" data-attributes="member: 7026617"><p>This is not a simple question.</p><p></p><p>First of all, there are rules issues that are extreme border cases, that mostly require someone actively hunting for them to encounter them. That's usually, really bluntly, a player problem, especially since it requires taking advantage of extreme odd combinations to work (but that produce unexpected and undesirable results when they do). Frankly, my opinion is that players who actively hunt out these are playing in bad faith, or alternatively playing a particular way that even pretty gamist players like myself find incompatible with what we're trying to do.</p><p></p><p>Second there are rules issues that exist because the system has so many complex moving parts that attempting to eliminate all of them is mostly impossible. Many more sophisticated superhero games are like this, because the tools to represent everything appropriate to the genre provide the tools to do some things that likely would never occur in a hero (aka PC) in the genre, by putting them together in an unusual way. These can't really be avoided mechanically for the reasons I reference, and players simply have to be encouraged to Not Do That, if necessary by outright saying no.</p><p></p><p>Finally there are rules issues that exist either because the designers have a very narrow perception of how things will be used, and/or didn't think things through at all well. Players not trying to do anything untoward can stumble into these, and in some cases the rule can be sufficiently broken it requires effort to engage with it <em>at all</em> without causing problems.</p><p></p><p>And one has to forget that "broken" can swing both ways. Its possible to have abilities that theoretically are useful but that in practice never really are because of other mechanical elements in the game. People will get snarky and say that this is just people not wanting to play in character, but often they're rules structures that are not <em>presented</em> as being useless--and thus theoretically shouldn't be making the character be useless--but still is.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Thomas Shey, post: 8941837, member: 7026617"] This is not a simple question. First of all, there are rules issues that are extreme border cases, that mostly require someone actively hunting for them to encounter them. That's usually, really bluntly, a player problem, especially since it requires taking advantage of extreme odd combinations to work (but that produce unexpected and undesirable results when they do). Frankly, my opinion is that players who actively hunt out these are playing in bad faith, or alternatively playing a particular way that even pretty gamist players like myself find incompatible with what we're trying to do. Second there are rules issues that exist because the system has so many complex moving parts that attempting to eliminate all of them is mostly impossible. Many more sophisticated superhero games are like this, because the tools to represent everything appropriate to the genre provide the tools to do some things that likely would never occur in a hero (aka PC) in the genre, by putting them together in an unusual way. These can't really be avoided mechanically for the reasons I reference, and players simply have to be encouraged to Not Do That, if necessary by outright saying no. Finally there are rules issues that exist either because the designers have a very narrow perception of how things will be used, and/or didn't think things through at all well. Players not trying to do anything untoward can stumble into these, and in some cases the rule can be sufficiently broken it requires effort to engage with it [I]at all[/I] without causing problems. And one has to forget that "broken" can swing both ways. Its possible to have abilities that theoretically are useful but that in practice never really are because of other mechanical elements in the game. People will get snarky and say that this is just people not wanting to play in character, but often they're rules structures that are not [I]presented[/I] as being useless--and thus theoretically shouldn't be making the character be useless--but still is. [/QUOTE]
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