PS: Good level-based games don't work like that. Heck, even the bad ones don't. Put a 20th level Monk against a 19th level wizard in D&D, the wizard will win effortlessly. Actually, I've read serious arguments from internet people saying that a 20th level wizard could effortlessly crush a 1000th level monk.
Besides, tactics and luck matter. Sometimes the stronger fighter loses.
It was a example-in-hyperbole, but we'll discuss this for a quick moment anyway. Certainly in level-based games some classes might be more powerful in certain situations than others. People always use D&D wizards as an example of OP (and they aren't explicitly wrong to do so) but if you compare a 6th level monk to an 8th level monk you should see what I mean. Comparing a monk to a wizard is too much apples and oranges for my example to function properly in the context of D&D.
In any case, MMORPGs are still very much like this. If you've ever played WoW outside of the new-release rush-to-level-cap, you'll have a good example. They explicitly make it so people more than 1 level higher than you are at such an advantage that fighting them is nearly worthless. The hit- damage- and critical-bonus system in WoW is explicitly set up for this to be the case in order to make the higher-level (see: more invested) players feel special.
... Again, though, not critical to the discussion at-hand.
Nah, that's what the conversation's been about for a while.
<sarcasm> Pssh, yeah, keep up Silver.
</sarcasm> 
Orladdin, you've got my postion backwards.
While I'm not above being wrong, I think I do understand your position here. Maybe I've not been clear enough in my examples to show it, though. Let me go over your points.
I care about this because I care about narrative. Visibility of Claws is non-mechanical, it's not something that someone who only cares about mechanics would care about.
But it
should be something they care about. There's a reason why an Abram's Tank, while
far more powerful than an Uzi, is less useful in practice. Narrative balance to mechanical strength
does exist, even if it is inconvenient. That's why game balance is
such a hard thing to do.
You can't drive around town in your Abrams. People in the game world
simply won't let you.
I care about this because I strongly believe that there is no wrong way to play, and so people who want to flavour their Claws weirdly should be accommodated by the rules.
I agree with this sentiment. Entirely, in fact.
The point I made before (I think it might have been in another thread at this point, but you were there) is that the granularity provided by the DFRPG / FATE refresh right now doesn't account for such a balanced disadvantage/advantage. I agree that you should be able to have claws that are retractable. But they should "cost more" than their less convenient counterparts. The problem is that the difference between 1 refresh and 2 refresh is
huge. The only other option is to introduce another, smaller, (perhaps narrative) drawback of the same calibur. If you don't, then
one set of claws is superior to the other because of the removal of a narrative restriction. I know you disagree about whether or not that's true, but I assure you it is. If I have the choice between claws that are always-out or ones that are optionally-out for the same price, I am going to pick the optionally-out ones
every time (barring flavor reasons to the contrary, of course, but
perhaps even then).
Does this mean the system is flawed in some way? Yes. But what system isn't? This flaw certainly isn't worth throwing the baby out with the bath water for.
And I care because I'm tired of seeing the lousy custom powers and balance decisions that get made when people don't accept the division between narrative and mechanics.
This is just like saying "I'm tired of seeing all of these lousy structures designed and built on the ground because people can't accept the division of mass and gravity. If you'd just ignore the existance of gravity, we could have much cooler buildings!"
Yours is an idealists' division. It cannot actually exist. Your job is harder because narrative
does play a part in mechanical design. They are inextricably linked in a good game.
