"Opportunity Cost" Is a Useful Term For TTRPGs

Even though I've been playing RPGs for half my life, and designing content for them for going on 8 years now, I still make fun little discoveries that give me light bulb moments. This week I wanted to share one that I came across on Reddit a week or so ago that's just been sloshing around in my brain, picking up speed with every lap in the pool.

That term is Opportunity Cost, and for me it helps immensely when it comes to explaining choices and resource expenditure when it comes to TTRPGs.

Because you can't do all the things when it comes to your game.

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It All Comes Out of The Same Budget

There was an article I read forever and a day ago that talked about the choices we make in our lives. There are only 24 hours in the day, after all, and you have to choose what you're going to do with them. And if you want to make positive changes then you are probably going to have to sacrifice something along the way... which is one reason so many of us have such a hard time making the changes we want.

For instance, let's say you want to start a workout routine. That's at least an hour or so of your day that has to come from somewhere... so what's getting replaced? Are you going to play fewer video games? Cut down your TV watching? Sometimes it might be possible to modify your choices, such as convincing a friend to come workout with you so you still get to do an activity together, but generally speaking you're going to have to pay the cost in time and energy out of your finite supply in order to get the results you want.

Or, put another way, when you make one choice, you lose the ability to pursue other choices because you've already spent that allotted time, energy, etc.

And what does this have to do with gaming?

When it comes to TTRPGs, every player is faced with the same choices, and the same pool of resources. The decisions they make, and the abilities their characters acquire, come with an opportunity cost.

For example, say you want the spellcasting abilities of a wizard. Cool, you have chosen to play a wizard. But you now have wizard hit points, weapon proficiencies, skill points, etc. You might wish you had the fighter's proficiencies, or the cleric's spell list, or the rogue's skills, but you don't. You made your choice, and by making that choice you are locked in to what you picked. You may have more opportunities down the line, but right now you made your choice, and you are stuck with it until you get the chance to make another.

Every player should have the same opportunities and resources as every other. However, any time you find yourself feeling like someone else's character is more powerful, more effective, or is just overall doing better, it's important to ask what opportunity cost they paid... because they did pay one.

The barbarian is a beast in close combat, dealing out massive damage in melee. That's fair... but they can't cast spells. The fighter is able to stack their armor class so high they're practically untouchable... but do they have more than 1 or 2 skills? The sorcerer can cast spontaneously, but they have all the weaknesses of the wizard without access to a wider selection of spells. The bard can do a little bit of everything, but they're often not as effective as someone focused on a particular task.

And so on, and so forth.

It's All About Where You Spend Your Points

Different games have different structures. Some are level based, and some allow you to buy new abilities by spending XP as you go. Some are based more on your equipment, making what you're wielding even more important than who your character is underneath it all. But this concept translates to every game, regardless of its specifics.

You can choose between the sword that does more damage, or the sword that heals you, but you can't afford both. You have enough XP to increase your Strength or your Presence, but not both. You leveled up, but you may not be able to take levels of certain classes because of how you arranged your character's attributes, or because some classes are mutually exclusive.

No matter the situation, there is always an opportunity cost when it comes to what you choose to add to your character.

Everything has its cost.

This term is particularly important when it comes to asking how many resources it takes for your character to be able to accomplish the things you want out of them. Because all of you sitting at the table have the same choices... but once you've locked in those choices, you usually can't go back and change them. You chose to walk through door number three, and by doing so you now can't go back and open the first and second door, as well.

Recommended Reading

If you enjoyed this week's topic, and you'd like to check out some more articles by yours truly, consider checking out the following!

- Players, Don't Overcomplicate Solutions To In-Game Problems: All too often we end up creating huge Rube Goldberg devices for solving out problems in-game, sometimes it's important to step back and make sure we actually know what goal we're trying to reach, and that we're focusing on reaching it.

- The Power of Martial Characters: So often we focus on the raw power of magic users, stating that martial characters just fall by the wayside halfway through the game. But is that really true? Consider, instead, this perspective.

- An Exploration of "Reverse Stereotype" Characters in RPGs: So often we look at the stereotype of a given character archetype or class, and we immediately try to flip it to become a photo negative... but does this just create a new stereotype, rather than an interesting, unique character?

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