Gaming Philosophy

I dont want this to turn into finger pointing, name calling, or another clusterfucky argument. But really, this wiki is about Game Discussion: thats its name.

What its all about

I write things on this wiki because I want to hear your comments about them. A secondary reason is that records should be kept for future reference. Primarily, I value these opinions (positive or negative) and use them to learn and grow as a gamer. It may seem that I a curmudgeonly or otherwise obsessed with the negative, but really I just tend to think that way.

Yes, we all know I am easily frustrated and have certain opinions about how things should be done. Thats not exactly what I am talking about.

All of you have valuable insight. Except Nate. He is a douche. (just kidding)

And so, without further adieu...

Why Balance is Important

Ethanol.

What the freakin' fuck? How does grain alcohol relate to gaming? Its about sustainability.

Here are the most common problems I have seen when there is a lack of balance. The first is the GCF problem. Those of you who remember basic arithmetic remember that as greatest common factor. If one PC can defeat a villain at a certain level, then all, or some percentage of them, must be able to withstand the attacks from this PC.

If not, the PC in question mops up and dominates combats. It becomes less of a challenge and more of an exercise in getting the wrecking ball in position to destroy the building. While this might be somewhat interesting for the wrecking ball (though not always) inevitably the others will tire of this.

In the opposite situation, where many of the villains are built to withstand the greatest fighter in the group, the PCs tend to be even less viable. Multiple of them must work in tandem to defeat a single villain. They are very vulnerable and find themselves to be nothing more than supporting characters. Some people relish this, sometimes this can work. But without the consent of the players it quickly makes combat less fun and more about trying to roll that natural 20 for double damage.

In both cases the problem can be mitigated for a short period of time before it becomes an issue. Sometimes, this short period might be substantial, especially if there are relatively few combats.

Another situation is the keychain effect. Each player during character generation has developed their character to some ridiculous maximum at a certain subset of the genre at hand. Other characters have specifically avoided stepping into the domain of the other PCs. The characters have become highly specialized instruments capable of vanquishing problems within their genre subset and little else. The GM then presents situations that the players work to 'game' so that their particular specialist is in position to do their trick, and again the GM has had to increase the difficulty to a level where only this player can accomplish it. If they havent, its a simple 15- roll and the big puzzle is solved. Thats no fun for anyone.

Conclusion: PCs should be good at things, but one trick ponies and other min-maxed character types should be expressly disallowed. PCs should be independent individual citizens of their universe, capable of surviving and thriving on their own. Well rounded is almost always better for the story (and everyone concerned) than super specialized.

up next, why failure is often more important than success