Thread by @qh_murphy

OK, morning writing session done, before I get my work on, I wanna talk about...balance in TTRPGs.

<throws grenade into hall, ducks>

This is how I've experienced balance in play and in design, and how I've witnessed balance in gamer culture.

<takes a breath...>

A lot of what gets said about balance in TTRPGs is nonsensical bullshit IMO.

I feel this way bc most talk of balance a) speak of it as an objective thing and not a perceptual, subjective thing b) talk of it in terms of equity and not in terms of expressiveness.

There are a lot of ways to play TTRPGs. A lot. I've tried as many of them as I possibly can.

What unites them all IME is that they are platforms for expression.

strategic. tactical. empathic. emotional. creative. mathematical.

there are a lot of ways to express yourself.

A lot of time when people are talking about balance, they are talking about balancing something mathematical to make things equal.

But my experience of it is that balance is only important insofar as it allows multiple valid expressions for people who play.

If we are balancing systems for the sake of balancing systems, then we are wasting energy.

If we are balancing systems to create better expressions, we are spending energy in the right place.

Does your audience feel like they have multiple ways to validly express themselves? Or do they feel like there is only one valid way to do a thing?

The key thing here: "feel". What your audience believes to be true regarding expressiveness is what *is* true, effectively.

I'm going to divert over to something else I know well to be one of the biggest and best examples of expressive balance: Magic: the Gathering.

When certain cards make it so folks feel that only one or two decks are the only ones they can play, adjustments need to be made.

Ppl pretend that competitive M:tG is all about winning, but I counter that with the simple fact that everyone likes the game better when there are more competitive deck archetypes to play with.

Strictly competitive, that shouldn't matter. But expressiveness *does* matter.

People love to talk about balance in terms of numbers bc numbers are easier to understand, but balance is really about how a thing is experienced.

And part of how things are experienced is how things are played, and what cultures are built around a game.

I'm not saying that math doesn't matter, and that systems don't matter. (I'm...never saying this)

What I am saying is that this is WHY systems and math matter. Systems without User empathy are more prone to being unbalanced and "broken", and also harder to fix.

It's also why playtesting matters so much, bc the more the game is played, the easier it is to build that empathy for how your systems are experienced.

I guess the TL;DR of what I'm saying is:

Balance is for people, not systems.

TBH, your system probably *likes* that there is only one or two classes that work in combat. It's much less work for it :).

But the people who play your game, they care a lot!

That one has been brewing in my head for some time. Thanks for letting me get it out!

OK I code now