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Why do RPGs have rules? Here are the key points in the OP of that thread:

You probably know this old Forge thread: [IaWA] Breaking Bad Habits It's all pretty good stuff, and - which is something we spoke about after the game - Vincent does talk about not setting stakes. When it comes to best interests, here's an interesting suggestion that Vincent offers, to help...

No, that was someone else: D&D General - Melf's Guide to Greyhawk: The Shield Lands

It's not part of the game to puzzle out best interests. These are public: the game depends upon everyone knowing what the situation is. There's no hidden board. (Unlike, say, classic dungeon-crawling D&D.) For the game to work, me (as my character) pursuing my (character's) best interests needs...

This slightly meandering post is prompted by playing a session of In A Wicked Age today. When we were discussing the session afterwards, @thefutilist pointed me to an old Vincent Baker blog: anyway: Creating Situation: a practical example The best line from the blog is actually in one of the...

What RPG do you have in mind that this is not true of?

Huh? This is what you said: And this is what @Campbell said: They're not "pretty much the same thing". They're very different things.

5e has a rather generic way of assigning mediaeval/fantasy skills to a PC; and then a lot of very detailed rules for assigning primarily combat abilities to PCs that are mediaeval/fantasy abilities. And has a fairly tight combat resolution system, provided that the combat is a melee or skirmish...

So 5e D&D is a generic RPG rule set? But BitD isn't? I'm not sure what the basis is for the ostensible contrast.

@Campbell said it best, years ago:

I dunno. I recently reread Ghost Tower of Inverness. I don't think it's that good. Castle Amber has some interesting ideas, but a lot of filler. When I adapted the Moathouse from T1 to Torchbearer, I cut out a reasonable amount of slog. One of the better old adventures I've converted and run...

Not really.

Hmm. I'm not sure the D&D combat resolution system can easily be made generic. The whole stop-motion, one attack per N seconds to deplete X hit points, approach is clearly best for melee and hand-to-hand duels. It's wonkier for archery - what actually happens when an arrow "hits" a character...

?? It's evident in the maps in LotR, and in the narration of The Hobbit which expressly refers to the world of the story as being in the author and reader's past. Patrice Louinet's critical edition of the REH Conan stories begins with a poem, Cimmeria, which is not portal fantasy but is...

Well, 4e D&D did work through this pretty carefully (in Worlds & Monsters and Open Grave). It seemed like a coherent thought process!

I was responding to this post:

There are multiple examples of "universal" systems that have been mentioned in this thread, that depart from this model: Cortex+/Prime; Hero Wars/Quest; Fate; even FitD.

If you want to play a game in which there are no Goliath PCs, or no Dwarven Wizards, then why not jus tplay it? I'm not sure why you need WotC to give you permission, or direction. Likewise with the rest rules. I mean (i) these have already been published and (ii) you seem to have already set...

I'm not that hard to enlighten! But I am wondering what RPGs you have in mind. My inference is that you're talking about games that are largely GM story-telling. Again, I'm wondering what your evidence base is - that is, what games are you thinking of?

Luckily no one has ever advanced mocking criticism of the two RPGs I've spent more consecutive years playing than any others - Rolemaster, and 4e D&D. So my gaming ego is unaffronted. <reviews nearly every post ever about RM and 4e> Wait, I think I need to edit this post . . .