| From: | Robert Hayden <rahayden@*****.WEEG.UIOWA.EDU> |
|---|---|
| Subject: | Realism v. Game Balance |
| Date: | Sat, 31 Oct 92 20:17:02 CET |
squaring off against the defenders of game-balance. It will be a
long and bloody war and in the end there can be no victor....
--- Tri-D Commercial for
Overloads VI: The Never Ending Battle
---------------
Ok, before I throw by 2 nuyen into this discussion, let me please
state that all of this is IMNQSHO. The view reflected here are
mine and those utilized by my gaming group, so flames will not be
accepted, but cash donations will :)
When the five of us started playing, we essentially defined the
atmosphere of Shadowrun. Using popular movies as a template, our
world feels essentially like this: The opression of Blade Runner,
the techy-feel of Total Recall, and the class distinctions of
FreeJack. This tend to make for a very ominous and dreary setting
to try to live in, and we like it that way :)
Now, when the issue of "game balance" came up, we spent an hour or
so discussing how we want to handle it. In the end, we
essentially decided on something like the following:
TO H*LL WITH BALANCE!
That's right, we threw the concept of game balance out the window.
The reasoning was that game balance as a concept didn't fit with
our world. In our world, you have the "haves" and the "have nots"
and NOBODY in between. That means that you are going to have
those that are better and those that aren't. In the end, it will
come down not to what bioware or chrome you have in stalled, or
how much magic you have, but what your instincts and skills and
abilities can do to keep you alive, put food on the table, and pay
off those that want your head on a platter.
Realism makes up 90% of our games, and anytime a player is able to
create a logic argument for a limiting rule in the SR book, we
will change the rule to accept the more realistic one.
Oh goodness, you are saying right now, that will create godlike
characters.
Yes, it could, but it hasn't happened yet in the 4 months i've
been with this group. What it has done is bring everyone close to
the world. We all love the concepts of shadowrun. We like the
history and the setting and the sociatal structure. That is where
we live our games, in the story, not in the the numbers. We once
went for 12 hours and only rolled the dice three times because the
rest of the time was spent role-playing, not roll-playing.
Now, before everyone jumps on me, let me restate that this is our
world and we've come to like it the way it is. Your world could
and should be different than ours. You may want to keep a
delicate balance and stick strictly to the rules of the game. That
is good and I respect that, but we don't. We prefer the dreary
realism of unequal sides and utter oppression.
That is why, using realism, we have chosen to have essence
healing, lower essence costs for bioware in mages, just as two
examples. We all discussed and agreed that, for the sake of
realism these were things that were necessary.
Oh well, thats my thoughts. Take them for what you will.
>> Robert Hayden | rahayden@*****.weeg.uiowa.edu | aq650@****.INS.CWRU.Edu <<
>>>-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-<<<
>> I never met a man I didn't like... <<
>> I never met a politician that was a man.... <<
