Rules Light Games: Examples and Definitions

Sword of Spirit said:

First, this is a really interesting observation that is going to cause me to put more thought into it for my own system

Second, I wonder how much of this is based on the class issue. Ie, in a classless, skill-based system (and with no other aspect element), is this something that would happen, or would people just envision their character in terms of the skills they picked?

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If it's a strong class system, like AD&D, then the class element provides a convenient label that makes it easier to understand the character concept. A ranger is a well-defined concept, as is a wizard.

As you move further away from a strong class system, the class defines less of the character concept. A ranger in 5E, for example, is different from a ranger in 1E. In 5E, you need to take the right background and skills for your ranger, in order to create the character concept that the 1E ranger had to start with. (You also have the freedom to take a different background and skills, if you have a different concept for the character.)

In any game I've ever played, the character creation process works like this:

1) Figure out what the world is like;
2) Figure out which character concept you want to play, that makes sense for that world;
3) Figure out how to represent that character concept within the game mechanics.

One issue with games that include class-based elements alongside point-buy or skill-based elements, is that the class still carries a lot of conceptual weight, but fails to support that concept unless you make the right choices in other areas. A ranger in 5E, who doesn't end up with Animal Handling or Survival, does not really fit the character concept of being a ranger.

When you're dealing with class-less games, the difficulty is in trying to represent the character concept within the mechanics. GURPS is especially terrible about this, since it has so many advantages and disadvantages and skills, it's hard to know which ones you need unless you read through every list and decide if each thing applies or not. The player still conceives of their character as a ranger, rather than a collection of skills, but they have to do a lot more work in order to make sure that they two align; and if they know they don't have enough points to convincingly portray the concept, they may have to change the concept.

When I think of games and engines that are light, I think of Microlite20, Tiny6, Fate Accelerated, Cthulhu Dark, Risus. Ultra-lights encompassing one to few page games like Lasers and Feelings.

I wouldn't categorize Fate Core into a rules light game. There are too many steps, sub-systems, and definitions for me to consider it a light game. The four actions, plus the skill system, plus aspects, plus stunts, plus the meta-mechanics, plus any extras the settings have are much too many moving parts for me to comfortably call it a light system. I'd categorize Fate Core solidly rules medium/medium crunch.