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<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>CB: The players need to be able to make equal
contributions to the story or they'll get dissallusioned and their creative
imput will be cramped. this is not to say individual characters as stand alone
enities need to be equal but they should have other resources the player can use
in the story such as allies, contacts, wealth etc... <BR></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>KS: Certainly this is true in principle. However,
in practice, a game's design doesn't make it inevitable that all _will_ make
equal contributions to the story, simply that they _can_ do so (I'm not saying
you're not aware of this distinction, Carl, I'm elaborating on what you've said,
rather than refuting it). Let's suppose you have some point-based system where
the standard character is 10 points. You could give an active player a 1 pt
character, and a sleepy player a 100 pt character, and the active player would
still dominate the game. </FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2> There's a group dynamic thing,
an expression of personality, which happens in roleplaying game sessions. And
that goes beyond the on-paper strength of characters. The major obstacle to
characters having an equal place in the story is _never_ their power level, it's
the imagination and energy of the player. "It's not the size of the character,
it's what you do with it." :D</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2> It's why I'm not too worried
about equal power levels in games, or in "game balance" between different
character types, etc. The _player type_ is far more important than the
_character type_ in seeing who dominates the game group. </FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Cheers,<BR>Kyle<BR>Better Mousetrap Games<BR>home
of d4-d4 and other stuff<BR><A
href="http://www.rpgnow.com/default.php?manufacturers_id=339">http://www.rpgnow.com/default.php?manufacturers_id=339</A></DIV></FONT></BODY></HTML>