Re: [GZG] Mixed Role Fighters

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n,

Well said.

The necessity for an inevitably broken point system in competitive games
is
generally why I avoid anything of that sort. I did my time in the
trenches
with early to mid SFB. Payed that bill, not interested anymore.

One point I didn't bring out very well was:

Not only does point estimation rely on the particulars of the situation,
but
FT has a fairly wide set of mechanics and options. This further
compounds
the range of situations you can encounter.

If you had a game with more simplicity and fewer options, balance would
be
easier (with good mechanics) because you'd have fewer sorts of option -
You
could bring paper, scissors or rock, rather than 12 pound paper, 20
pound
paper, kids scissors, pruning shears, dynamite, gold bars, or Mount
Everest.

I guess the key thing I wanted to point out since the argument was going
back and forth was:

The result is driven by assumptions used in the calculations and
therefore
there will never be a final answer nor a definitive one. It will always
be
possible to question any result from some perspective and so the wheel
will
just keep on turning.

That's where I was going with my comments. You can't resolve this
because it
is inherently unresolvable to a level of complete satisfaction for all.
You
can discuss it, get some value out of the discussion, make up
conventions
for your group or even some larger subgroup of all FT players, but
there'll
always be contention about some points.

Resolution for all time you will not find.

------------

I do like scenario or mini-campaign constraints to what you can bring,
in
the absence of specific scenario contents. That helps keep the range of
scenarios limited and helps make any sort of assumptions about points
more
reasonable and balanced. (One example: Disallow Soap Bubbles, max 33% of
any
fighter specialty, etc). Pre-game exchange of intelligence can also help
a
lot, although this can be totally misleading and end up in a debacle
(ECC
Can-Am I (aka "Fighters Eat ESU Fleet - Film at 11") anyone?).

In this sort of more limited venue, you can reasonably determine a
fairly
acceptable point score that might actually be useful for balance or VP
purposes.

TomB

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