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Message: <blockquote data-quote="DrunkonDuty" data-source="post: 8626405" data-attributes="member: 54364">The OP said this was a broader conversation than just DND so in that spirit and to get away from the endless martials vs. casters in DnD debates...Yes I think balance is important. Why? I think most players want their chance to shine, to be in the spotlight, to be the one who walks in the sun. (Thank you, Cyndi Lauper.)Balance comes in two main flavours: Player vs. Player and Player vs. Adventure. Now, when I say Player vs. Player I don't mean in a knockdown fight between the characters. I don't care for that in-game and so I don't worry about it much here in theory land. YMMV. What I mean is the competition between the players for the limited spotlight time. Given the limited time we have to play it can be a problem when a player misses opportunities to shine due to other characters overshadowing them. Fixing this sort of issue will vary greatly depending on the specific cause of the problem, frequency, and the group dynamics. It might require a character rewrite (either a power up or a power down), or a change in player dynamics, or a change in player expectations, and I'm sure other things I haven't thought of.While I'm on the topic I have a good example of mismanaged player expectations:Back before the pandemic I wrote up a set of adventures as an introduction to the Champions RPG. Like a good writer I play tested it a couple of times with 2 different groups of  friends before taking it out into the world. I got some contradictory feedback about 2 characters; not-Black Widow, and not-Wasp.In the first test I got feedback from 2 players that they felt not-Widow and not-Wasp were underpowered compared to the other PCs.* This despite the fact that these two characters dominated in the exploration and infiltration. They got most of the screen time in the first half of the adventure and about an even share during the second more combatty half. But they only did about 75% of the damage that the big hitters (not-Thor and not-Hulk) did. It was this, the lower damage, that caused the players to feel dissatisfied. That they got so much screen time didn't seem to register with them but I'm pretty sure the other players were aware it. (ie. the other players wanted some more screen time.)In the second test the characters were played in a pretty much identical manner but the players loved not-Widow and not-Wasp. The players had a ball doing the infiltration and generally being all techy and nimble and out-smarting the baddies. The different players just had different expectations of what it means to be effective.My take away as an adventure writer is make sure your players know what their characters are good at. Both in general and game mechanical terms. Make this part of the Session 0 discussion. (My other take away was streamline the exploration/infiltration bits of the adventure.)With Player vs. Adventure the problem arises when nothing the character does adds positively to the adventure.** Again, how to correct this will vary depending on the group's needs at any given time. But to generalise, make sure there's variation in encounter*** design such that all players get a chance to do their schtick. And make sure the encounters are a good mix of challenge, from cake walk to knuckle-biting. I feel adventure balance is easier for the GM to mitigate because they only need to manage their own behaviour as opposed to managing that of others. The two flavours of player vs player and player vs adventure obviously have a lot of overlap. eg. The character who tries to do something they should be good at fails then another character steps up and succeeds. Is this a player stepping on another player's schtick? Or a badly designed encounter? Or both? Well, it depends.... so many variables.Now, as if this post isn't long enough, I should say that all the above is really only considering the game mechanical side of things. Spotlight time is also going to be a matter of the social dynamics of the group. I mention this because I feel it should be considered. But it is such a huge topic that I don't want to go down that rabbit hole just now.* Yes, specifically the other PCs.** I know, that's a very broad statement. *** BTW, I say encounter not combat. Combat is a subset of encounter.</blockquote>

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