[Design] Character Generation: Detail vs TimeOpportunityCost

[David Cake]

At 4:45 PM +1100 16/11/05, Curufea wrote:
>Many of the flaws with many roleplaying games - especially D&D - 
>could have been overcome with adequate playtesting.  Rather than 
>this "release now, correct later" policy that dominates the gaming 
>industry (including wargamming).
>
>Carl Brown <catodon at whale-mail.com> wrote:
>
>I like the idea of a 2 pronged attack. Archetypes but include a 
>system for generating morearchtypes/unique characters. Without such 
>a system things can get unbalanced (eg. later AD&D kits)

	Indeed, and I've certainly seen it make a difference in 
playtests I have been involved in (playtesters made an enormous 
difference to Hero Wars, for example, particularly the 'gang of 
eight' who got credits as rules consultants)
	The problem with things like D&D is that there is both strong 
pressure to limit playtesting - even if you do some, there is a nice 
ordered product stream so products can't go over their playtesting 
time - and pressure to keep introducing cool new things that change 
the game somewhat so new supplements don't get ho hum. Financially, a 
company is a lot better off (at least in the short term, and most RPG 
companies live from product to product and are very focussed on the 
short term) to release a product with a few elements (classes, 
equipment, etc) that are somewhat overpowered and unbalancing, than 
it is to produce a product where all the stuff is just a little 
underpowered and not compelling. Of course, getting everything just 
right is the ideal, but difficult.
	And even things that actually are balanced can be unbalancing 
when suddenly introduced. That new attack that needs defences no one 
has yet might have been perfectly balanced if everyone was aware of 
it at character creation.
	Cheers
		David
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