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Community
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What does balance mean to you?
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<blockquote data-quote="Mishihari Lord" data-source="post: 7156796" data-attributes="member: 128"><p>Balance in an RPG can have several very different meaning depending on the context, which is unfortunate because it can cause confusion in discussing the topic. It can mean equivalent power between PCs, it can mean equivalent utility of character ability options, and it can mean appropriate challenge level in an encounter.</p><p></p><p>For an encounter, I have an intention of making it negligible, easy, medium, hard, very hard, or impossible. If I achieve my intention in the execution of the encounter I've achieved balance. Picking the right set of challenge levels for a games encounters is important to making the game fun for your group, and the right choice will vary greatly depending on your players' preferences.</p><p></p><p>Balance among PC generation options means that none stand out as too strong or too weak. If an option is so strong that every player will choose it for his PC or so weak that no one chooses it, it is unbalanced and should be changed.</p><p></p><p>Probably the most contentious idea is balancing PC power against one another. I've seen this often discussed on this and other board in terms of damage per round, which IMO is BS. There are plenty of ways for players to contribute to the game that have nothing to do with damage or even combat. One of the reasons I disliked 4E is that IMO it went to an extreme in balancing PC power in terms of combat, which precluded many types of play. The best rule I've seen for balancing PCs is spotlight balance. To achieve spotlight balance, 1) every PC needs a chance to shine, an instance where he's very important to the game proceeding in a positive manner, and 2) every PC should almost always have something useful to do.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Mishihari Lord, post: 7156796, member: 128"] Balance in an RPG can have several very different meaning depending on the context, which is unfortunate because it can cause confusion in discussing the topic. It can mean equivalent power between PCs, it can mean equivalent utility of character ability options, and it can mean appropriate challenge level in an encounter. For an encounter, I have an intention of making it negligible, easy, medium, hard, very hard, or impossible. If I achieve my intention in the execution of the encounter I've achieved balance. Picking the right set of challenge levels for a games encounters is important to making the game fun for your group, and the right choice will vary greatly depending on your players' preferences. Balance among PC generation options means that none stand out as too strong or too weak. If an option is so strong that every player will choose it for his PC or so weak that no one chooses it, it is unbalanced and should be changed. Probably the most contentious idea is balancing PC power against one another. I've seen this often discussed on this and other board in terms of damage per round, which IMO is BS. There are plenty of ways for players to contribute to the game that have nothing to do with damage or even combat. One of the reasons I disliked 4E is that IMO it went to an extreme in balancing PC power in terms of combat, which precluded many types of play. The best rule I've seen for balancing PCs is spotlight balance. To achieve spotlight balance, 1) every PC needs a chance to shine, an instance where he's very important to the game proceeding in a positive manner, and 2) every PC should almost always have something useful to do. [/QUOTE]
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