Here's a recent series of RPGing experiences I've had, GMing Torchbearer:
Each Torchbearer player needs to choose an item of "raiment" (clothing) for their PC. The PC's raiment does not occupy an inventory slot; and when adjudicating the costs and consequences of travel - a big deal in the game, measured in "toll" - the PC's raiment can absorb one point of "toll" for free.
In our game, the player of the Dwarven Outcast Golin chose galoshes as his raiment. Given that he also started with shoes, and given that Torchbearer doesn't really have rubber, in my mind at least his "galoshes" are more like gaiters.
Each player also needs to choose a Belief for their PC. Golin's Belief is An explosive solution is a good solution; and in a departure from standard PC build rules I let him start with some alchemical explosive powders. Each player also chooses their PC's "Wise", a field of specialised knowledge: Golin is Explosives-wise.
These two choices - galoshes, and an obsession with explosives - are obviously not that serious; comical, even. If I'd been in charge of building the PC, the character would definitely have been more serious.
A few sessions into the campaign, though, and Golin's explosions drive a few key moments of play: he uses his flashbangs and smoke bombs to defeat stirges; and his obsession with explosives also causes one, nearly killing his fellow adventurer (who is permanently changed as a result).
And in the following session, the weather roll for the PCs' journey indicated a storm, and we were calculating the toll, and the PCs had already worn out their shoes to avoid past toll; and then Golin's player calls out "Galoshes!" - and so this barefoot Dwarf, trudging through the pounding rain, has really dry ankles, and is less worn out than he otherwise would have been. That's an image, and it's actually not much more absurd than some parts of The Hobbit.
It's not what the fiction would have looked like if I was playing solitaire, but that's not the point. The point is that it's the players' fiction too. They can create vivid, memorable moments. In my view a good RPG system - in its PCs build rules and its action resolution rules - is one that makes this happen reliably and often.
Each Torchbearer player needs to choose an item of "raiment" (clothing) for their PC. The PC's raiment does not occupy an inventory slot; and when adjudicating the costs and consequences of travel - a big deal in the game, measured in "toll" - the PC's raiment can absorb one point of "toll" for free.
In our game, the player of the Dwarven Outcast Golin chose galoshes as his raiment. Given that he also started with shoes, and given that Torchbearer doesn't really have rubber, in my mind at least his "galoshes" are more like gaiters.
Each player also needs to choose a Belief for their PC. Golin's Belief is An explosive solution is a good solution; and in a departure from standard PC build rules I let him start with some alchemical explosive powders. Each player also chooses their PC's "Wise", a field of specialised knowledge: Golin is Explosives-wise.
These two choices - galoshes, and an obsession with explosives - are obviously not that serious; comical, even. If I'd been in charge of building the PC, the character would definitely have been more serious.
A few sessions into the campaign, though, and Golin's explosions drive a few key moments of play: he uses his flashbangs and smoke bombs to defeat stirges; and his obsession with explosives also causes one, nearly killing his fellow adventurer (who is permanently changed as a result).
And in the following session, the weather roll for the PCs' journey indicated a storm, and we were calculating the toll, and the PCs had already worn out their shoes to avoid past toll; and then Golin's player calls out "Galoshes!" - and so this barefoot Dwarf, trudging through the pounding rain, has really dry ankles, and is less worn out than he otherwise would have been. That's an image, and it's actually not much more absurd than some parts of The Hobbit.
It's not what the fiction would have looked like if I was playing solitaire, but that's not the point. The point is that it's the players' fiction too. They can create vivid, memorable moments. In my view a good RPG system - in its PCs build rules and its action resolution rules - is one that makes this happen reliably and often.