This post I find stunning, in it's almost complete divorce from reality.

>-----Original Message-----
>To: gmast@phoenyx.net Date: Tuesday, 15 February 2000 06:16
>Subject: GM: Balance? BALANCE?! We don't need no stinkin' balance!


>This is one that I've been thinking about for a while. How much do you
actually care about >balance? Personally, I don't care at all. If you're
willing to kill characters off, then I guess you can >say your game is
balanced, but unless you are, the game is always tilted in the player's
favor.

    Wrong.
    Any roleplaying game is tilted against the players. The rest of the
world only has to destroy the player's character or render them unplayable,
and that character is no longer viable.
    The world, on the other hand, can afford to lose as many times as it
likes.


> Since I like to have fun and don't want to deal with pouty players who've
just had their favorite >character killed, I don't give a flip about making
sure that they don't get too big for their britches.

    The degree of poutiness of your players is of statistical relevance,
only to you. I dislike DMing pouty players. I ask them to leave my game.
    As far as how tough a character gets, the only real concern is that it
makes internal sense to the game story, and the character's story.

>Also, if they get powerful, I have no problem coming up with powerful
things to send against >them. So, there's always some challenge; but who
needs balance?

    Balance is just a term we use to measure suspension of disbelief
against, in this case, character development. If the character progesses
unnatually quickly, or slowly, then it has no balance within the frame of
referents of the story. It is a jarring and dissonant note that threatens
the integrity of the game.

>
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