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With Respect to the Door and Expectations....The REAL Reason 5e Can't Unite the Base
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<blockquote data-quote="Tony Vargas" data-source="post: 6019873" data-attributes="member: 996"><p>All the more reason to obsess over robust balance. A game that might be played in many different ways can't count on always having 4-encounter days, or characters that start at 1st and proceed through 20th, or campaigns that emphasize combat, exploration, and interaction in a certain proportion to eachother, or the like. 5e is currently being designed with two those assumptions: that days will contain a prescribed amount of challenge and attrition, and that campaigns will spend the right proportion of time in each pillar to balance combat-only fighter with exploration-heavy rogues and interaction-specialized bards. And, classic D&D was balanced 'across levels,' with magic-users starting out weak and fragile and growing into mighty arch-mages while fighters started strong and plateaued early and non-humans started out loaded with the advantages of multi-classing, then ran up on level limits. </p><p></p><p>Or, maybe that's what you mean about 'obsessing over-much on balance?' Painting the game into a corner with 'balancing' mechanism that restrict the range of play? </p><p></p><p>One nice way of saying 'imbalance' is 'rewards for system mastery,' and 4e did reduce the intentional rewards for system mastery that 3e designed in (according to Monte Cook, in reference to the 3.0 he worked on, in Ivory Tower Game Design). So, sure, there are those who resent that change in emphasis. </p><p></p><p>But, as far as accommodating a breadth of campaigns and styles, well-balanced games do so better than fragilely-balanced ones. At worst, I suppose you could say that a balanced game, in allowing many styles, doesn't "support" specific styles to the degree that imbalanced ones favoring (over-rewarding) a style, or delicately balanced ones that only retain balance under a specific style, may do.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Tony Vargas, post: 6019873, member: 996"] All the more reason to obsess over robust balance. A game that might be played in many different ways can't count on always having 4-encounter days, or characters that start at 1st and proceed through 20th, or campaigns that emphasize combat, exploration, and interaction in a certain proportion to eachother, or the like. 5e is currently being designed with two those assumptions: that days will contain a prescribed amount of challenge and attrition, and that campaigns will spend the right proportion of time in each pillar to balance combat-only fighter with exploration-heavy rogues and interaction-specialized bards. And, classic D&D was balanced 'across levels,' with magic-users starting out weak and fragile and growing into mighty arch-mages while fighters started strong and plateaued early and non-humans started out loaded with the advantages of multi-classing, then ran up on level limits. Or, maybe that's what you mean about 'obsessing over-much on balance?' Painting the game into a corner with 'balancing' mechanism that restrict the range of play? One nice way of saying 'imbalance' is 'rewards for system mastery,' and 4e did reduce the intentional rewards for system mastery that 3e designed in (according to Monte Cook, in reference to the 3.0 he worked on, in Ivory Tower Game Design). So, sure, there are those who resent that change in emphasis. But, as far as accommodating a breadth of campaigns and styles, well-balanced games do so better than fragilely-balanced ones. At worst, I suppose you could say that a balanced game, in allowing many styles, doesn't "support" specific styles to the degree that imbalanced ones favoring (over-rewarding) a style, or delicately balanced ones that only retain balance under a specific style, may do. [/QUOTE]
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