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Would you say though that it's mandatory to have the GM of such a system take a 'no fudging, no thumb on the scale' position? I don't think narrativist play is possible in a game with a GM who has fudge and veto power over resolution. EDIT: that is to say, a GM that uses such power, or reserves...

That is completely false. A player in such a 'modern' game has at least the same type of agency to 'force an outcome' as a player in a more traditional game does - through making choices and declaring appropriate actions for their character. The difference is that in a trad game the resolution...

Why can't everybody be the adult? Our roleplay group is pretty static but we've had people's friends join before and at university (many many years ago now) I was part of the uni RPG club. I've never experienced anyone being hostile, violent, or disruptive in the ways you describe.

I remember some time ago you also said that players had threatened you with violence on I think more than one occasion. It does make me wonder where you are finding these players, and who they are. Are they schoolchildren?

It's really just pure sim in a wonderful, joyous way. It shows how you can enjoy any creative agenda if the vehicle is designed perfectly for the ride.

So much of these kinds of threads is really about who you play with and whether they are engaged with the game.

When you say theme here I'm not sure what you mean. I feel like you mean the ingredients of play - character options, gear, enemies, setting details. Maybe also dials like power level of the characters, or the lethality of combat. I think what others are talking about with theme is more like...

That's a nice way to put it, I agree. And I suspect that some critiques of older games that appear to be arguments for better tools are really arguments for more tools. Now that we have those 'more tools' it's easier to see that no, Rolemaster isn't bad, you just want something different.

I think what's happened is that new ways of using mechanics have been found and refined, thus essentially creating new playstyles that were previously unsupported and perhaps unimagined. I'm comfortable therefore saying that game mechanics as a field has improved because there are simply more...

I is being silly yes 🙂

The next step is Giant Worm DM, be careful!

Ugh I hate this, face me while you're describing the situation goddammit! 😉

Wait are you just a Buddy GM? 'Yes player, the sewer goblin gives you a sword +1 in tribute'.

? These can all just be handled as Persuasion checks in 5e, with no special thematical postmodern game design required. Assuming that the player thinks of them and that the GM agrees. This way you have more room in the book for hundreds of exception based combat abilities, like all RPGs need.

People who don't think that system matters, don't think that system matters, I agree. Their games are worse for it.

This strikes me as a sequencing error though. I'm not clear to what extent people really think 'I'd love to play a game about moral judgement and escalation where the characters embody a sense of moral and legal authority', and then look for a game system to fit it. I think instead people see...

I think at the time it was largely considered a copying of Rolemaster, which had already existed in similar structure for some 15 years (and which Monte Cook had produced supplemental material for). I think it was seen as a modernisation, and a welcome one, but innovative would be inaccurate.

I'm a big fan of Rolemaster 2 using the MERP sourcebooks and maps. I've run it a couple of times, never longer than 12 sessions but that was simply the circumstances rather than because it feel apart in any way. PC survival is potentially an issue, I got round this by giving each player a fate...

I prep a bunch of material but I try not to be married to it and I'm a good ad libber.

Have you seen 24 Hour Party People? It's a sort of biopic of Factory Records, Joy Division, the Hacienda, New Order, Happy Mondays, etc. Serkis plays the, uh, singular music producer Martin Hannett. It's a great movie.