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<blockquote data-quote="Stormonu" data-source="post: 5457122" data-attributes="member: 52734"><p>It's the law of unintended consequences. Change one thing, and it negatively affects something else you didn't consider at all. In short, the whole game can fall apart if it isn't checked. But just some of the issues I've had over about 30 years of gaming (luckily for my games, I've been able to put the problems in check before they ruined my game):</p><p></p><p>- Characters that become unbeatable due to lopsided racial or class modifications (either by introduction of new race/classes or the removal of existing restrictions) - (f'ex, giving spell points instead of spell slots to wizards)</p><p></p><p>- Rules that punish players more than monsters (Critical hits & fumbles tend to fall into this trap; having your arm lopped off only affects a monster for a scene - for a player, it's the rest of the game)</p><p></p><p>- Too much wealth accrued by players, allowing them to "buy their way out" of encounters (f'ex, players at 5th level use their money to buy an item of <em>Slay Living</em> to beat the BBEG)</p><p></p><p>- Monsters that become too hard to kill because of a rule change that favors them, decreasing the player's fun (f'ex, all monsters do +2d8 damage with each attack, even at 1st level)</p><p></p><p>- Powers or abilities that are uncounted for in the game and make things too easy for the players (which leads to boredom) (f'ex, everyone in the party starts with permanent <em>fly </em>spells in a game dominated by ground-based melee opponents)</p><p></p><p>- Silly skills or checks that make easy tasks too difficult to accomplish or dangerous to attempt ("roll out of bed onto floor and die from a fumble" syndrome) - this usually crops up with too much of an attempt at simulationism (f'ex, character has to make a Climb check to climb up into a tree in the middle of the woods and upon failing, immediately takes falling damage - enough to kill the character)</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Stormonu, post: 5457122, member: 52734"] It's the law of unintended consequences. Change one thing, and it negatively affects something else you didn't consider at all. In short, the whole game can fall apart if it isn't checked. But just some of the issues I've had over about 30 years of gaming (luckily for my games, I've been able to put the problems in check before they ruined my game): - Characters that become unbeatable due to lopsided racial or class modifications (either by introduction of new race/classes or the removal of existing restrictions) - (f'ex, giving spell points instead of spell slots to wizards) - Rules that punish players more than monsters (Critical hits & fumbles tend to fall into this trap; having your arm lopped off only affects a monster for a scene - for a player, it's the rest of the game) - Too much wealth accrued by players, allowing them to "buy their way out" of encounters (f'ex, players at 5th level use their money to buy an item of [I]Slay Living[/I] to beat the BBEG) - Monsters that become too hard to kill because of a rule change that favors them, decreasing the player's fun (f'ex, all monsters do +2d8 damage with each attack, even at 1st level) - Powers or abilities that are uncounted for in the game and make things too easy for the players (which leads to boredom) (f'ex, everyone in the party starts with permanent [I]fly [/I]spells in a game dominated by ground-based melee opponents) - Silly skills or checks that make easy tasks too difficult to accomplish or dangerous to attempt ("roll out of bed onto floor and die from a fumble" syndrome) - this usually crops up with too much of an attempt at simulationism (f'ex, character has to make a Climb check to climb up into a tree in the middle of the woods and upon failing, immediately takes falling damage - enough to kill the character) [/QUOTE]
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