Game design is always a set of compromises. There is a space between what you see in your mind and what hits the table. You’d like to have an economic mechanic which models the price inflation that would occur in a city after a large dragon hoard was captured and dispersed among the city’s merchants and taverns but an hour of dice rolling and record keeping just wouldn’t be that fun so you hand wave it or ignore it all together.

When picking a game to play, when designing an adventure location or monster, when designing a game there will be compromises. Being mindful of this helps to determine which compromises to accept and which ones we have to stand our ground with.

Do we include certain cultural practices and beliefs in our game which we today find morally abhorrent but are historically accurate?

Is fast game play more important or realistic wound healing more important? Where do we compromise? Is there a different way to solve the problem?

When we start asking questions about what we are willing to compromise on, we can start to see what our game is about and then make clear decisions which leads to better play.