From: David Cake (davidc@cs.uwa.edu.au)
Date: Wed 25 Oct 1995 - 07:28:39 EET
I seem to be in an overly excitable phase on this list in the last
few days. I'll try and settle down a little.
But first, a final word in my defense, on the subject of game balance.
>From: carlf@panix.com (Carl Fink)
>I will retract the jape "power gamer" in favor of "rule
>concretizer". As Sandy Petersen says, the rules should be fun, not
>"balanced" like a wargame.
Part of the charm of RQ is that it is less dedicated to ideas of
'balance' in the wargaming sense than many other games, and I would
certainly not want to argue against it in general - some cults are tougher
than others, some races are much tougher than others, and that is just how
life it.
But when this starts to interfere with game fun, then that is when
it becomes a problem. And to me, Illusion spells are one of the things that
has gone too far. And my reasoning is simple. Illusion spells are expensive
enough that my players (and if I am honest, my NPCs) are not interested in
buying them, so they are not used, or very seldom. So the game is deprived
of all the potential fun that might have been had if illusions were more
effective.
Sure, it is easy to denigrate a desire for game balance and say
'roleplaying above all'. But you can say that whether there is a real
problem or not.
Babeester Gor is an overpowered combat cult. This is neither a
problem for roleplaying (because people that are going to play BGs are going
to want to play tough characters), or for Gloranthan flavour, as the BGs are
supposed to be really tough. Illusions are too expensive. This is a problem,
because it interferes with both roleplaying (Trickster players are going to
want to perform illusions and will find most of them far too expensive), and
Gloranthan flavour (because powerful illusions are supposed to be possible
for the select few, but are implausibly hard as the rules stand).
David
Computing Officer |" Life is easily understood as bit strings of logical
Arts Faculty UWA |depth greater than their length" - Rebis, Doom Patrol
davidc@cs.uwa.edu.au |" Do not think, HIT, it is our way" - Milk & Cheese
>Microsoft, meanwhile, denies that the problem exists.
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