Power Balance is a Myth

Pixabay

Without dropping names, I keep seeing attempts to add power balance into gaming material. I’ve seen this in blog entries, in a book I've worked on, and a handful other places. I thought the whole point of indie/OSR game design was to add crazy off-the-(mind)-map shit that could fuck a whole adventuring party in one round if you so desired, or the dice just went that way, you're teaching a cautionary tale to your players, whatever.

Seriously, is this just a knee-jerk holdout from recent converts?

Shitty GMs?

The OSR’s creeping version of "Show, don’t tell”?

Maybe it's just unwitting bad game design, and I'm no saint here (I don't have the experience points yet...)

In some instances, it seems to be about projected personal control, and it tends to deliver that worst of game killers, lack of player agency. You may as well be a story gamer (I don’t care, just making a point of difference. Game how you like).

Having the X factor in play is another indie/OSR deal maker for me. Not quite at peak David Tennant Doctor Who levels - it has to be a bit more measured - but that mystery element should brush up against and ideally be accessible to characters in the proper amount.

Only a GM can decide how much is enough. Authors and game owners trying to control this amount is foolish, a waste of time. Make a gaming toolbox/game biome/other, release it into the wild, and fuck right off, seriously.

“The author should die once he has finished writing. So as not to trouble the path of the text.” ~ Umberto Eco

Game balance is a myth, unless you like beating square pegs into round holes until the fun oozes out. At best, it’s an approximation, but that’s it. Otherwise, why not just write for Pathfinder or 5E? (And good luck with that three-hour-long five round combat. I've heard there are faster games than this in those editions, I've just never seen one).

Simple, quick, accessible, weird, X factor, immersive tone, player agency, tell me a thrilling story, and show me the blood of heroes - in beating hearts or as a broadening pool. These are the things I think of in great games, what I still do this for, what I want to write and run.

"Here's an apple, here's a gun. Don't talk to strangers." ~ Lockout