Hi,

I was talking about the new MoM game when it appears to me that one of the trouble in the perception of balance and fairness in competitive gaming (like Descent) versus RPG is the ratio of Overlord to Heroes win. So I am asking the community her view on this. I dont know how to make a pool on this forum so just express your choice of thoses options :

1- The Overlord should never win a game for the game to be balanced : he is just a fraking Gamemaster after all.

2- The Overlord should win 1 game out of 5 for it to be balanced : he is 1 of the 5 players.

3- The Overlord should win half of the game for it to be balanced : it is a two side battle after all.

4- The Overlord should win more than half the game for it to be balanced : he is the devilish opposition and the forces of Evil, defeating him should be a major achievement.

5- The Overlord should win all the games for it to be balanced : Hey ! he IS the Overlord after all.

Now answer the same pool but with the fun of the game instead of balance.

1- The Overlord should never win a game for it to be fun.

2- The Overlord should win 1 game out of 5 for it to be fun.

3- The Overlord should win half the game for it to be fun.

4- The Overlord should win more than half the game for it to be fun.

5- The Overlord should win all the games for it to be fun.

Personnaly I am not yet exactly decided but I am sure my balance rating will be around 2-3 while my fun rating will be around 3-4...

Assuming equal skill...

Ivan Kerensky said:

Truth is I really don't care who wins as long as it could have gone either way with a single different dice roll or card draw, and we had fun (including both tension and humour) getting there .
I'd rather have fun for 8 hours on a single quest, and lose, than clean one up in an hour and a half.

I guess I am an odd ball be cause it doesn't matter who wins OL or Heroes as long as the game is just epic and fun. Nothing ruins a game more than watching one side stomp the other, then dragging the beat down on and on till people say screw thins and quit. I have felt that humiliation just recently and came close to putting the game up for good. I have felt this fustration from the heroes end in RtL and from the OL end playing the vanilla Descent.

So I will pick 4 for both.

I will also like to point out that if the OL always wins in the campaign settings then have everyone play the OL once then they would all be winners and the balance is kept, might be the wrong kind of balance, but its something.

In order for the game to be balanced I would say #3 (50% win ratio.) To my understanding that appears to have been the design intent. It also reflects our own experiences with the game, I think. Barring any newbie mistakes on one side or other, of course.

As far as making the game fun, I echo what others have already said - it's less about who wins and more about having fun getting there. I think people who obsess about one side winning "more often" than another are shooting themselves in the foot as far as fun is concerned. That might make for some great statistical analysis, but it won't make for a lot of fun. (IMHO.)

I admit the game design (both vanilla and AC) lends itself to the Overlord crushing the heroes early if he wants to stand a significant chance of winning, and that's the one thing I would really like to change about the game. It should be a relatively even fight all the way through, with either side standing a good chance of winning at any point with a decent strategy and not-too-sh*tty luck.