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<blockquote data-quote="DEFCON 1" data-source="post: 8083895" data-attributes="member: 7006">Because game mechanics ruin story.&nbsp; <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f609.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=";)" title="Wink&nbsp; &nbsp; ;)"&nbsp; data-smilie="2"data-shortname=";)" />We have game mechanics, because any RPG is partly a game.&nbsp; By definition.&nbsp; And people play RPGs because they enjoy playing the game part of an RPG.&nbsp; That's why so many people spend so much time demanding more game mechanics, or new ways to use the game mechanics we have.&nbsp; More feats, more classes, more subclasses, more races, more this, more that.&nbsp; Rolling dice and reaching numbers and moving &quot;pieces&quot; around a board (whether physically or in their minds) are the fun part of the game for many people.&nbsp; For some, it's the ONLY part of the game worth playing.&nbsp; And as we all know... a game that is inherently unfair or inherently unbalanced just isn't fun to play (for the most part).&nbsp; Everyone needs to know going in that if they are going to play a game... they have just as much of a chance at success as anyone else playing too.&nbsp; And striving for success makes the game have meaning.&nbsp; But what does that mean?&nbsp; It means the game has to be designed and built to have that balance.&nbsp; To have that fairness.&nbsp; Without it... it's not a game worth playing.The only problem is... stories are unfair.&nbsp; Stories are unbalanced.&nbsp; Stories require drama-- and drama is the striving for success in times when life isn't balanced and life isn't fair.&nbsp; But in an RPG... when half the game is designed and built to HAVE that balance and fairness... you lose a whole crapton of drama because of it.Would it have been dramatically powerful for the cleric to pull out this spell they wanted to use and defeat the dragon?&nbsp; Absolutely.&nbsp; But the game can't just give the cleric that ability, because it would make the game unbalanced.&nbsp; And it would make the rest of the players less inclined to play because they would know that their precious game mechanics no longer really mattered.&nbsp; The game part of the RPG didn't matter.&nbsp; Only the story did.&nbsp; Thus the spell can't make a dramatic shift in the story to scare off the dragon, it can only be a part of the balanced mechanics.&nbsp; Thus a mere +2 bonus.Now if you have a group of players who are dramatists by nature and who are in it for the story... and they know in their bones when it is appropriate to succeed and when it is dramatically necessary to fail so that the future success is sweeter... they would only need game mechanics for random inspiration for their dramatic ideas.&nbsp; The old &quot;Why do you need game mechanics to play D&amp;D at all?!?&quot; question.&nbsp; And the answer of course being that 99% of the people who play D&amp;D aren't dramatists by nature.&nbsp; <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile&nbsp; &nbsp; :)"&nbsp; data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" /></blockquote>

[QUOTE="DEFCON 1, post: 8083895, member: 7006"] Because game mechanics ruin story. ;) We have game mechanics, because any RPG is partly a game. By definition. And people play RPGs because they enjoy playing the game part of an RPG. That's why so many people spend so much time demanding more game mechanics, or new ways to use the game mechanics we have. More feats, more classes, more subclasses, more races, more this, more that. Rolling dice and reaching numbers and moving "pieces" around a board (whether physically or in their minds) are the fun part of the game for many people. For some, it's the ONLY part of the game worth playing. And as we all know... a [I]game[/I] that is inherently unfair or inherently unbalanced just isn't fun to play (for the most part). Everyone needs to know going in that if they are going to play a game... they have just as much of a chance at success as anyone else playing too. And striving for success makes the game have meaning. But what does that mean? It means the game has to be designed and built to [I]have[/I] that balance. To have that fairness. Without it... it's not a game worth playing. The only problem is... [I]stories[/I] are [B]unfair[/B]. Stories are unbalanced. Stories require [I]drama[/I]-- and drama is the striving for success in times when life isn't balanced and life isn't fair. But in an RPG... when half the game is designed and built to HAVE that balance and fairness... you lose a whole crapton of drama because of it. Would it have been dramatically powerful for the cleric to pull out this spell they wanted to use and defeat the dragon? Absolutely. But the game can't just give the cleric that ability, because it would make the game unbalanced. And it would make the rest of the players less inclined to play because they would know that their precious game mechanics no longer really mattered. The game part of the RPG didn't matter. Only the story did. Thus the spell can't make a dramatic shift in the story to scare off the dragon, it can only be a part of the balanced mechanics. Thus a mere +2 bonus. Now if you have a group of players who are dramatists by nature and who are in it for the story... and they know in their bones when it is appropriate to succeed and when it is dramatically necessary to fail so that the future success is sweeter... they would only need game mechanics for random inspiration for their dramatic ideas. The old "Why do you need game mechanics to play D&D at all?!?" question. And the answer of course being that 99% of the people who play D&D aren't dramatists by nature. :) [/QUOTE]

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