The Challenge: A role playing game should be versatile. It should allow various different types of characters, all of whom can interact effectively with each other. However, game balance alone is not the only difficulty when making a versatile game. The fifth challenge of creating an RPG comes into play: the challenge of game consistency.

Although players like variety, the point of having a role playing game system at all is to impose some degree of functionality to the game rules. Available abilities, what level of power the characters have to be to do certain things, and so on. This is game consistency, the ability for players who understand the basic rules to generally predict how individual rules will interact with the game as a whole.

An RPG displays its consistency in a number of ways. Character power is chief among them. Although one might say that any foe can be dangerous, a character who can reliably take on an adult dragon should not have to fear a street urchin with a knife in anything that even vaguely resembles a fair fight. A character who can spot the rare and subtle mistakes of a master assassin should have little difficulty locating a scared child hiding beneath a table. Extenuating circumstances might apply