So, I've come full circle. I'm back with my first love - D&D.
This is my "why". It's important for me to share, as my hope is to provide insight into the mind of a habitual system-addict, manic seeker of the "perfect medium complexity depth because #feelings" RPG and perhaps help other manic-addicts like myself find some peace.
Recently I dusted off a game system I had explored almost a year ago, dug in a little deeper and found new inspiration to jump in head long. The system's fiddly-bits abound, and I was dazzled by the fiddly-bits because I'm easily dazzled by them. I believed that fiddly-bits would give player's and myself a needed "depth" of options to make game-play more fun. I wanted "medium complexity" because I thought lighter games didn't cover all the options needed to make a game feel "complete".
Before this new religion, I had dusted off another favorite game and started up a campaign with it. It is a more "gritty" and "realistic" system, with attention to details in both character creation and combat. I hoped this game would add the "feeling" I'm looking for. Of course, trying to identify this "feeling" wasn't so important as seeking it...
In the course of my campaign I've struggled with new players learning the system, running combats with many participants, shoe-horning magic into my vision of how it works, and encouraging players when their characters seemed less heroic than they had initially hoped.
In the course of prepping the new game, making 12 characters for a con I would later not be able to attend, came more revelations. In addition, I found a play test group for a similar game as my new one, and played a more complex game and then spent the better part of 2 hours discussing with that GM the merits of lighter, faster systems and trying to figure out what we NEEDED the damn fiddly-bits for. It was an enlightening evening. It's been an enlightening year really.
In short I came to a conclusion. I wasn't having fun. Worse, I didn't feel like my player's were having fun either. This is generally not good. I have had some personal revelations I share below;
Revelation one: I don't like making characters in games with lots of fiddly bits. Also, I'm pretty sure none of the players I have roped into my games like it either. They put up with me, but they would rather just get on with it. Complexity does not equal "depth" in the ephemeral way I was hoping to find it. It's also REALLY annoying. This revelation was like discovering (and eliminating) that strange buzz you never realized was giving you migraines.
Revelation two: Complexity adds useless time to doing EVERYTHING in the game which detracts from actually playing the game. Looking back at all the complexity my "perfect medium complexity depth because #feelings" games introduce into play has added zero fun to the games. In fact, it detracts from them. Instead of playing in a natural fashion we're stopping to figure out rules that generally come to the same conclusions as the faster games. Also, I personally don't bring a lot of the minutiae of these games into play anyways, so it's really a lot of wasted space and time (both on paper and in my brain).
Revelation three: My most successful games have been with D&D (and the like). I'm sure other light games in the OSR movement would serve some of those same purposes. I like the basic structure of it. I like the stuff I'm reading in the OSR. I feel like I've held on to stubborn "dislikes" of D&D-isms based on habit. Most of my issues are with the way players approached them. I'm smarter and wiser now. Instead of using rules like a bible I can use them like a framework. I've been doing that all along anyways, why use a more complicated framework? Abstract is good. The game just needs to move! Looking back at all the things I think I needed, I am just not seeing how they added any fun. Being able to just "get into it" has had way more impact.
Revelation four: Complex games take longer to prep, which detracts from accomplishing the prep. I run a hybrid sandbox + events style, and I like to have various things ready to pull as I "improvise" through various encounters and reactions to player choices. Not only do complex systems make it harder to prep, they make it harder to improvise. I need to be quick on my feet. This has cost me loads of personal time.
Revelation five: I'm not as digital as I once thought I should be. I'm feeling like the computer is getting in the way of me engaging the game. I'm faster with 3-ring binders, physical books, notes, a GM screen and 3x5 cards. Maybe I'm more old-school than I thought, but I'm seriously going to ditch my digital for an analog table. I thought maybe music would be fun, but it's also just distracting. I just need people and imagination! It's more fun to me. It will also make playing in the retirement home after the apocalypse MUCH easier...
Revelation six: I'm bat
crazy. It's important to recognize your problems so you can address them, right? Don't worry, I think these revelations are the first steps in me fixing this.
So, I've explored the OSR stuff and have read D&D 5e and decided to stop chasing this strange obsession with "perfect medium complexity depth because #feelings" down the rabbit hole. Instead I'm going to focus on running games and creating for them. At this moment those games are going to be D&D (5e) or like games. No more complex games. I'm going to focus on the fun. Complexity is not fun for me.
I'm actually feeling good about this decision. Not in my usual "let's form a cult in my mind and pursue this idea with manic devotion!!" kind of hyper good, but the calm good of a real epiphany.
Thanks for reading my diatribe. I'm really excited to have my feet under me again.
This is my "why". It's important for me to share, as my hope is to provide insight into the mind of a habitual system-addict, manic seeker of the "perfect medium complexity depth because #feelings" RPG and perhaps help other manic-addicts like myself find some peace.
Recently I dusted off a game system I had explored almost a year ago, dug in a little deeper and found new inspiration to jump in head long. The system's fiddly-bits abound, and I was dazzled by the fiddly-bits because I'm easily dazzled by them. I believed that fiddly-bits would give player's and myself a needed "depth" of options to make game-play more fun. I wanted "medium complexity" because I thought lighter games didn't cover all the options needed to make a game feel "complete".
Before this new religion, I had dusted off another favorite game and started up a campaign with it. It is a more "gritty" and "realistic" system, with attention to details in both character creation and combat. I hoped this game would add the "feeling" I'm looking for. Of course, trying to identify this "feeling" wasn't so important as seeking it...
In the course of my campaign I've struggled with new players learning the system, running combats with many participants, shoe-horning magic into my vision of how it works, and encouraging players when their characters seemed less heroic than they had initially hoped.
In the course of prepping the new game, making 12 characters for a con I would later not be able to attend, came more revelations. In addition, I found a play test group for a similar game as my new one, and played a more complex game and then spent the better part of 2 hours discussing with that GM the merits of lighter, faster systems and trying to figure out what we NEEDED the damn fiddly-bits for. It was an enlightening evening. It's been an enlightening year really.
In short I came to a conclusion. I wasn't having fun. Worse, I didn't feel like my player's were having fun either. This is generally not good. I have had some personal revelations I share below;
Revelation one: I don't like making characters in games with lots of fiddly bits. Also, I'm pretty sure none of the players I have roped into my games like it either. They put up with me, but they would rather just get on with it. Complexity does not equal "depth" in the ephemeral way I was hoping to find it. It's also REALLY annoying. This revelation was like discovering (and eliminating) that strange buzz you never realized was giving you migraines.
Revelation two: Complexity adds useless time to doing EVERYTHING in the game which detracts from actually playing the game. Looking back at all the complexity my "perfect medium complexity depth because #feelings" games introduce into play has added zero fun to the games. In fact, it detracts from them. Instead of playing in a natural fashion we're stopping to figure out rules that generally come to the same conclusions as the faster games. Also, I personally don't bring a lot of the minutiae of these games into play anyways, so it's really a lot of wasted space and time (both on paper and in my brain).
Revelation three: My most successful games have been with D&D (and the like). I'm sure other light games in the OSR movement would serve some of those same purposes. I like the basic structure of it. I like the stuff I'm reading in the OSR. I feel like I've held on to stubborn "dislikes" of D&D-isms based on habit. Most of my issues are with the way players approached them. I'm smarter and wiser now. Instead of using rules like a bible I can use them like a framework. I've been doing that all along anyways, why use a more complicated framework? Abstract is good. The game just needs to move! Looking back at all the things I think I needed, I am just not seeing how they added any fun. Being able to just "get into it" has had way more impact.
Revelation four: Complex games take longer to prep, which detracts from accomplishing the prep. I run a hybrid sandbox + events style, and I like to have various things ready to pull as I "improvise" through various encounters and reactions to player choices. Not only do complex systems make it harder to prep, they make it harder to improvise. I need to be quick on my feet. This has cost me loads of personal time.
Revelation five: I'm not as digital as I once thought I should be. I'm feeling like the computer is getting in the way of me engaging the game. I'm faster with 3-ring binders, physical books, notes, a GM screen and 3x5 cards. Maybe I'm more old-school than I thought, but I'm seriously going to ditch my digital for an analog table. I thought maybe music would be fun, but it's also just distracting. I just need people and imagination! It's more fun to me. It will also make playing in the retirement home after the apocalypse MUCH easier...
Revelation six: I'm bat
crazy. It's important to recognize your problems so you can address them, right? Don't worry, I think these revelations are the first steps in me fixing this. So, I've explored the OSR stuff and have read D&D 5e and decided to stop chasing this strange obsession with "perfect medium complexity depth because #feelings" down the rabbit hole. Instead I'm going to focus on running games and creating for them. At this moment those games are going to be D&D (5e) or like games. No more complex games. I'm going to focus on the fun. Complexity is not fun for me.
I'm actually feeling good about this decision. Not in my usual "let's form a cult in my mind and pursue this idea with manic devotion!!" kind of hyper good, but the calm good of a real epiphany.
Thanks for reading my diatribe. I'm really excited to have my feet under me again.
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