Re: PBM design: give away the formulas?

From: desj@ccr-p.ida.org (David desJardins)

Date: Wed, 23 Jun 1993 05:18:09 +0000

Rich Skrenta <skrenta@rt.com> writes:
> Legends seems to fall into the hide-the-formulas category.  The first
> page of their rule book says: ....

Legends seems to me to be a great example of what a bad idea this is.
It seems that one can clearly judge how poorly this works from the
extensive discussions on the net of the form, "What's the formula for
this?"  It doesn't result in players playing by the seat of their pants
as much as (1) players getting information from other players, and (2)
players getting whipped by players who know what's going on.

There are plenty of examples, but I'll content myself with a single one.
Seers get a great advantage in Legends because they can use two Seer's
Crystals, once they can get them, to gain an advantage in all forms of
magic.  The extent of this advantage is such that I expect among
experienced players a majority select to be seers.  But players who
haven't been alerted to this quirk, and how it can dominate many other
aspects of the differences between magic users, select based on criteria
which turn out to be much less important.  What on Earth does this
accomplish except to screw first time players?

David desJardins

References

PBM design: give away the formulas?
skrenta@rt.com (Rich Skrenta)
Sat, 19 Jun 1993 18:12:59 +0000