RPGaDay 2023, Day 18
Coming of age ...
I’m torn, here, between Traveller and Lightspress Media’s DoubleZero, with Frostbyte Books’ Comae Engine coming in third, and Mythras fourth.
Right at the bottom of the list are Modiphius’ execrable Star Trek Adventures modules, both in terms of nauseating presentation and overcomplex implementation, and Onyx Path’s Geist: the Sin-Eaters, Mage: the Awakening, Mummy: the Curse, Beast: the Primordial, Promethean: the Created and Deviant: the Renegades.
When you come across a game whose setting is charming, but whose system is appalling, the gamers typically fall into two camps.
Some games have a gorgeous setting (Harnworld, the World of Darkness) but horrific game engines. Others have game mechanics which have been forced into doing a job they were not designed for (Mummy: the Curse) or even operate backwards to expectations (Mummy: the Curse).
The late N Robin Crossby once wrote this about his beloved Harnworld.
Fantasy role playing is a trinity of three vital elements: gamemastering, rules, and environment. The first needs little explanation; even the best environment and rules will not survive the misjudgments of a bad GM, but they can make a talented rookie shine. Rules are no more than a mechanical set of guidelines, an attempt to formulate common sense into some pretty weird stuff …
A good environmental framework is a painstaking endeavor that takes many, many years of blood and sweat to create …
All works of fantasy should be woven of familiar threads. Because it is impossible to entirely describe an alien world, readers must be able to fill in the gaps with their own knowledge and experience …
Of course, in any fantasy the viewer/player must suspend his disbelief. In fantasy role playing, most are willing to accept that magic works and that fell beasties roam the wilderness … but they are carefully blended with medieval reality ...
While it is true that magic-strong, hack-and-slash environs can keep players busy for a time, only an environment that is fundamentally rational can give the feeling that one is involved in an epic …
Those who have so far limited their FRP activity to random forays into disjointed chaos have missed at least half the fun of this exciting hobby.
There is no such thing as the perfect game system. There are systems which work, and which are robust and modular, and transportable to other game settings. Those portable engines can shine even if transplanted in whole into a new setting. For example, try running Harnworld using the Mythras d100 engine from The Design Mechanism. See how easily that simple system fits? The Harnmaster engine looks almost the same as the Mythras engine.
When the system is good and effective, you almost forget to roll the numbers. It all becomes roleplaying, and immersion, and you forget about the rules when your character becomes a vital part of the game. It stops being about the numbers and crunch, and starts being about these people you are playing.
It’s terribly sad when somebody comes along and looks at the setting, and sees only the crunch - the numbers. The die rolls for everything, from cooking breakfast to farting to fucking. You know they don’t get it. They don’t know they don’t get it. And you know that you can’t bring them out of their spreadsheet little heads otherwise.
The best systems come with a little extra rule, right at the start. Goes by the name “Rule Zero” or “The Golden Rule.” And it’s typically worded something like “The game supersedes the rules. Anything that doesn’t fit the rules, throw the rules away as long as you and the players are all having fun.”
The best system of them all is that freeform jazz where you and the others at the table are having fun, even if the rulebooks have been thrown out the window. That’s a system I live to enjoy playing, because that is when you and the others are the table are actually doing things right.