The Loot Sicko's Dilemma
Today Clayton of Explorers Design released an incredible article about an issue that's been living rent free in my brain and I finally have a word for: Dominant Mechanics - "...rules that cannot co-exist in a system without monopolizing play and overriding other rules." The type of mechanics whose simple presence pulls so much attention that one begins to attempt to "solve" the game through it at every pass. For example, if you have HP now the combat mini-game will be almost exclusively thought of in terms of maximizing HP damage rather than interacting with a more puzzle-y aspect of a boss (unless you institute immune phases or HP bloat and now we're back to the 1 HP Dragon and 2500 HP Dragons as band-aids over the same oozing wart[*1]). Dominant Mechanics can become especially cumbersome in otherwise more freeform games that involve various "number-go-up" systems, especially those with loot [See also Marcia struggling with this in keeping Cin...
