Is game balance the most important part of a system?
Is game balance the most important part of a system?
Logan Campbell
Cooper Thompson
Balance regarding what?
Grayson Rogers
The most important part of a system is that the rules support what you want to play. If the rules don't support whatever that is, or nearly so, then it isn't a system you should be using for whatever it is you want to play.
Jacob Martinez
Epicness is.
Let me explain:
>D&D
Balance is shit, but fuck it's so hella fr*cking epic!
>GURPS
Balanced, but not epic at all.
Bentley Sanders
>hello fr*cking
We're going to need to surgically remove this tumor from tg.
Luis Roberts
That's such a vague statement that it becomes basically a non-statement when examined critically.
>the rules support what you want to play.
On one hand, a person can argue that the rules do not support what they want to play and list a vague definition based around what the system does not do, while on the other hand a person can argue the rules do support the game they wish to play by listing an overlapping but ultimately contrary definition by listing what the game does do.
Nicholas Gomez
I don't see how it's a non-statement. The most important part is that it does what you need it to do. If it can't do that, then nothing else matters, because you shouldn't be using it for whatever game it is you're playing. Is that a difficult concept to grasp?
Ethan Lee
That depends on what you mean by "balance".
If the game is imbalanced to the point where one PC is making another PC superfluous, then the game is imbalanced to the point where there is a serious problem.
Nathaniel King
But what does it need to do?
It's saying a game's rules need to help you play the game. But what is the game?
Considering the rules are what help define what the game is, it seems to be largely circular interpretation (the game is obviously what the rules intend it to be).
Zachary Jones
>But what does it need to do?
>But what is the game?
That's where you come in! If you say you want to play a modern detective drama, well, you're certainly not going to look at D&D as the answer. Maybe you'll choose GUMSHOE, or Call of Cthulhu, or any other number of systems that support "modern detective drama."