Guide to Balancing

The goal of balancing isn't to make it so that everything is on an equal playing ground, nor is it to make sure there are no overpowered items in the game.

The ultimate goal of balancing is to make the game more fun and remove elements that feel simply unfair.

Unfun Design

The following things are typically what feel unfair and unfun to play against:

• Being defeated by something that you couldn't possibly foresee
• Being forced into a situation that is unwinnable against your will
• Being unable to act

These are general things that will lead to unfun and unfair feeling mechanics, though something may include elements of these without inherently feeling unfair.

Making better mechanics

The following things won't necessary give you perfect balance, but may give you some ideas for how to improve yours, and others, content.

• Prefer 'active' abilities over 'passive' ones: Being given a flat 20% increase in armour won't feel impactful to the user and often will feel unfair to the opponent who cannot do anything about this. When a player is given the choice of when to use their ability, it feels a lot more powerful and makes strategising with that ability much more interesting. It is often more fair for the opponent as you can also telegraph the ability.
• Avoid hard counters: Avoid anything that gives you an instant victory, or completely nullifies the effects of something. Sometimes these can be fun and well-balanced, but often times they result in items being overly situational and limit their use.
• Communication is key: Losing feels unfair when you have no idea why you lost. Make sure that the player knows what happened to them (even if they aren't shown this information during a situation) and ensure that if you are using a powerful counter, that the opponent can be aware of the presence of this counter.
• Use randomness appropriately: The more consistent something is, the better it can be used when a player is planning their actions. Randomness can be used to close gaps in player skill, or create unexpected situations that can drive a unique story forward. Use these carefully and in the right situations.
• Keep new players in mind: Making mechanics easier for new players to use often results in those mechanics feeling much better to experienced players too. It is always better when the player feels like they are in control, and designing with new players in-mind forces you to think about how to keep the player in control of what they are doing.
• Create fun scenarios: Every mechanic should ultimately contribute to creating a fun scenario and story. Mechanics that involve a lot of people should naturally be more powerful as they promote fun scenarios to emerge, and sometimes a bit of power is needed for something to emerge as a serious threat in a created storyline.

Don't be afraid to deviate from these ideas, they aren't rules and shouldn't be followed to the T.

Considerations when balancing

Balancing is often a balancing act in of itself. You are trying to achieve a goal, but you need to also consider the consequences.

• Removing something that exists for convenience may achieve your goal, but it may just be frustrating for players to deal with.
• Sometimes things can't be improved and need to be removed. Remember that we can't remove everything, so the content in this category being removed needs to be carefully considered so that we achieve the biggest gains without losing too much.
• Know when to keep things powerful. Often by making the power-dynamics of certain things perfect, you remove the fun elements of it. A traitor that only has items that put them on par with security will never be able to do anything fun, and removing an item that could be obtained by the crew closes off a lot of ghetto strategies that antagonists can utilise.
• Always play with the mechanics that you are balancing and discuss your balance changes with other people. You aren't just balancing for the opponent, but the user too.
• Be very clear with explaining your goals to other people, and the consequences of your changes that you are willing to live with. Nobody gains anything when you have a hidden personal goal.
• If someone can be stopped far too easily, they will play passively and won't make any interesting events in the round. If you are constantly forced down paths where you spend the whole round preparing only to be immediately stopped without any fun scenarios, players will choose to stop interacting with certain mechanics.