Ease of Play: Players vs. Game Masters

Ok, in a typical battle scenario you have a band of players. Each player controls a single character. On the other side is the GM. He controls some number of characters. This number could be one or it could be two or three times the number of players. One of the consequences of this is that players often have much better tactics and use their powers much better. The players are very familiar with what they can do and have more time to consider their actions. GMs switch the characters they are controlling every combat and can rarely fully utilize these characters in the same way players can.

So it is four to six minds using tools they know well versus a single mind using tools he has never used before. This tends to be one of the key reasons players win, and that isn't a bad thing, but this notion should impact game design. Games should support player characters that have many options and have some level of complexity to play, but at the same time, should have non-player characters who are easy to play and don't have the same array of options, although they should be able to match the PCs in terms of power. In most games there ends up being little difference in difficulty of control between players and non-players. And this is generally a flaw. I will briefly touch on a couple games where this is not the case.

World of Warcraft is admittedly a computer game with human intelligences matched against a simple AI. Because of this design, the human intelligences are given a wide array of options, while the simple AIs have a greatly reduced set of abilities. A human might have twenty powers to pick from while an AI opponent has maybe three.

Fourth edition D&D makes everyone simpler to play, but does it do it evenly? Well non-players tend to have fewer power options. One notable example of this in non-player classes like mages. Instead of having the eight or nine powers that a player might have they have maybe three. The very mechanics used by players and non-players is different. Players have powers that are either always on, usable once per encounter, or usable once per day. Non-players don't really have once per day powers since it is assumed they will only show up for one battle. But hey do have some other powers. They have abilities that kick in or recharge when 'Bloodied'. They have abilities that recharge based on a die roll. This is great because it allows to to create interesting encounters, but it is also strange that non-players have more power mechanics than players.

In short, as a DM I really appreciate the ease of play of the non-players in fourth edition. In general fourth edition makes encounter creation much easier. But as a player the lack of options grates on me. The DM may not have the extra mental cycles to manage complex abilities and resources, but the player surely does. Part of the 'skill' of D&D is figuring out how to get a lot out of your character, but this has been reduced in fourth edition.