Too Much Tuning

AI Art by @nightcafestudio

One of the problems of highly tuned games is they are far too fragile for sandbox and story-based gaming. While you can run sandbox or story-based games in these systems (we did for years with 4E), they start to show their weaknesses and begin to break down when the assumptions you have about "how the game world works" runs against "how the game was designed to play."

Of course, the town guard are level one!

Why are they getting slaughtered so effortlessly by a level 4 monster?

Admittedly, 5E has less of a problem with this than Pathfinder 2 or D&D 4; it just happens later. 5E has another problem of 40 level 1 archers being able to kill high-level monsters, so there is a strange problem in another way.

AI Art by @nightcafestudio

You see tightly balanced systems like this typically in board games like Heroquest or Descent. Part of the design goals around D&D 4E was the board game explosion of the 2010s, so they said, "Let's make D&D more like a board game!" The designers at Wizards never could pull it off, and outside of Magic: The Gathering, they are still terrible at balancing and maintaining tabletop games.

Significantly few people can balance games with this level of complexity, and it often takes years of iterations and changes (impossible for printed books). The MtG card ban lists are proof of this; they can ban a card - you can't really pull back a paragraph in a printed book. We were there for the D&D 4E errata; by the time a book hit the shelf, it was obsolete, and the errata was already available to download.

So we got 5E, a sound system, but again, this system is still tightly tuned around the same +/- 4 level encounter range as 4E. Bounded accuracy reduced the math but at the cost of making everything difficult to balance and referee. Without bounded accuracy, balance is accessible and becomes more like a JRPG. That monster is a -10 to hit, and I have a +10 to hit - this is balanced. All you are doing from there is adjusting DPS and healing for both sides while keeping an eye on turn-denial mechanics. If I go in with only a +5 to hit, that will be a near-impossible encounter.

You pull in those numbers too tight, and strange stuff happens. Any JRPG designer knows this; too tight a system creates exploits and unintended consequences.

If I throw a group of four goblins at level 4 B/X characters? That is still a threat. They can focus on short-bow fire and take out a supporting character. Add slow damage or weakness poisons, a few traps, and terrain; the encounter is deadly. B/X balance and "CR ratings" are something you learn after years of play, and I feel that sort of math - while handy - pushes the game too far into tabletop video gaming.

And we have a very tightly tuned game on the market, which has come closest to the tabletop dungeon crawl dream - Pathfinder 2e. This has the same problem that D&D 4E has, you get a party of level 5 adventurers and have them fight level 1 town guards - and it is crit-fest slaughter. We had an encounter like this in D&D 4E with orcs and a party 4 levels above them; there was a point where we stopped and said, "This isn't fun; we are feeling sorry for the orcs."

This is the same MMO feeling where a level 60 adventurer walks through a level 1 starting zone and sneeze-kills groups of monsters in the blink of an eye. Your mind starts to say, "The Pathfinder 2e world isn't real; it is more like living inside an MMO."

That isn't bad since we enjoyed that part of D&D 4E for years. But it did break immersion, sandbox play, and it put a strange qualifier on roleplaying. A level 5 character could laugh at town guards, but that was their world. That isn't true in 5E anymore, but 5E has a problem with massed fire from low-level ranged fire being far too deadly - even to a level 20 character.

My issue with Pathfinder 2e is complexity. I like hard games, but complexity - for a solo player - kills my experience. The game is better with a group where each player can be a class advocate and expert. Playing a group, plus GM-ing, plus knowing classes and party synergy? Way too much for me.

If I want a challenging game, I will play Old School Essentials. All the challenge with 1% of the complexity. And if I want options, I will mod them in. This is how it used to be done. Many of the options presented in these newer games aren't options when the optimizers get to the game. They are fake choices, and for a given build (or party), there are only a few - or one - choices to make. Yes, you can play with a non-optimal build. But the players did not make the game to be a tabletop dungeon-crawling game; the designers did.

You emphasize difficulty and challenge, and you will attract players looking for that experience. And this is a competitive game, so that brings in all the optimizers. This happens in video games, so there is no saying sorry or making it easier. The game's appeal - what sells it - is that challenge and dynamic. One thing I wished for in PF2 was 'difficulty tuning' - in the characters and builds. Keep all CR and encounters in adventures the same, but modify the characters to set difficulty.

If I want a less complicated game without optimizing, I will play 5E with the Level Up A5E version. This is the best version of 5E at my table, and it combines 5E and OSR concepts very nicely. I can also play and ignore predatory 5E companies, which is a nice feeling that gives me peace of mind.

To be ethical and "on the right side of history," stop ignoring predatory corporate behavior and vote with your wallet and choices. Otherwise, you are part of the problem. This is good old-fashioned Vermont activism speaking and part of my upbringing. When I was growing up, there were boycotts of General Electric for supplying weapons to wars in Central America, to other companies doing business with an Apartheid government, to everyone other company engaged in unethical practices.

Is it really any different now?

If I want a game I can mod and play with, having 90% of the 5E experience, I will play Castles & Crusades. I am working on an amazing mod that gives you more options than 5E, all while staying easy to play and create characters with. Most of this mod uses options from the CK Guide, a 5E race guide, and a few "laser pistol" cantrips from the SRD.