Jupp said:
The term "on the fly game designer" is also quite strange. It's not that rules lite DMs always create their adventure on the fly. They prepare adventures and encounter as everyone else does, at least most of the time. Perhaps he meant that those DMs have to "wing it" more often but if that is the case he somehow doesnt understand completely how rules lite systems are played.
Near as I can figure, he means that game designers are responsible for balance and realism, and all that stuff needs to be figured out ahead of time by experts. Which I think is bunk.
Example: A character is trying to jump a ravine to grab a rope, in the rain. If you can't look in the book to find out what the right modifiers are, then it's on the head of the GM to come up with a target number, and maybe the players will argue, or it'll be too high or too low, or whatever.
To which I go, what the heck game are people playing that this would be worth an argument? If it's dramatic to have a chance of failure, have one, if it's not, don't. Does it really matter if this fictional character is better at grabbing a wet rope than someone would be in real life? Considering that the GM invented the rope, the ravine, and the rain, is there any advantage to measuring the distance and cross-referencing the guy's Jump skill, versus picking a DC that represents how hard you want it to be?
And if picking a difficulty consists of "on-the-fly game design", something that's supposed to be left to the experts, how is it that any of us have run anything other than a published module?
I think the more interesting questions are things like "how do I come up with interesting characters, situations, and challenges", which is something complex rules don't address anyway.
Jupp said:
...Roleplaying is not defined by rules, it's defined by how the players interact with the gameworld and how the DM (re)acts toward the players and the gameworld. You can have as many rules as you want, it doesnt make a good DM out of a bad DM or a good game out of a bad game(world) :\
Exactly. The social situation at the game table is the key. If your players enjoy arguing for whatever reason, they'll argue. And the GM could say "Rocks fall, everyone dies" at any time. Neither party does these things, because they want to have a good time, and they can work together as people. If your group can't work together on a basic, person to person level, complex rules just paper over the hole in the wall. If anything, simpler rules make you go "Yeah, there's a hole there, what are we going to do about it?"