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<blockquote data-quote="pemerton" data-source="post: 8524116" data-attributes="member: 42582"><p>A RPG cannot achieve a given agenda, or conform to given principles, if its techniques won't support that.</p><p></p><p>For instance, suppose that you state that your agenda is <em>present a grim and foreboding world</em>. And then you state that you're going to use Tunnels & Trolls as your system. Straight away you are stuck with a problem: T&T, while pretty <em>deadly</em> as a system, is not very grim or foreboding in the world it presents. It's relatively lighthearted.</p><p></p><p>Or suppose your agenda is <em>fill the character's lives with adventure</em>. And then you state that you're going to use Classic Traveller as your system. I think Classic Traveller supports <em>interesting</em> lives, but not always adventuresome ones - it has rules for dealing with bureaucracy, for managing your ship mortgage, and for avoiding misjumps based on the fuel you use.</p><p></p><p>What makes AD&D 2nd ed incoherent - as [USER=82106]@AbdulAlhazred[/USER] posted upthread - is that it states an agenda of heroic fantasy stortytelling, but provides as its techniques a slightly cut-down and streamlined version of Gygax's AD&D, which is not suitable for that agenda at all!</p><p></p><p>If the agenda is stated in meta-terms rather than by reference to the content or tone of the fiction - eg <em>play to find out what happens</em> or <em>always begin and end with the fiction</em> - that puts demands on techniques too. You can't realise the first of those two agendas using a system of GM fiat or GM pre-authorship of the major events of play. You can't realise the second of those two agendas if key elements of your resolution system do not take the state of the fiction as an input, but are conditioned purely on other mechanical states of affairs.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="pemerton, post: 8524116, member: 42582"] A RPG cannot achieve a given agenda, or conform to given principles, if its techniques won't support that. For instance, suppose that you state that your agenda is [i]present a grim and foreboding world[/i]. And then you state that you're going to use Tunnels & Trolls as your system. Straight away you are stuck with a problem: T&T, while pretty [i]deadly[/i] as a system, is not very grim or foreboding in the world it presents. It's relatively lighthearted. Or suppose your agenda is [i]fill the character's lives with adventure[/i]. And then you state that you're going to use Classic Traveller as your system. I think Classic Traveller supports [i]interesting[/i] lives, but not always adventuresome ones - it has rules for dealing with bureaucracy, for managing your ship mortgage, and for avoiding misjumps based on the fuel you use. What makes AD&D 2nd ed incoherent - as [USER=82106]@AbdulAlhazred[/USER] posted upthread - is that it states an agenda of heroic fantasy stortytelling, but provides as its techniques a slightly cut-down and streamlined version of Gygax's AD&D, which is not suitable for that agenda at all! If the agenda is stated in meta-terms rather than by reference to the content or tone of the fiction - eg [i]play to find out what happens[/i] or [i]always begin and end with the fiction[/i] - that puts demands on techniques too. You can't realise the first of those two agendas using a system of GM fiat or GM pre-authorship of the major events of play. You can't realise the second of those two agendas if key elements of your resolution system do not take the state of the fiction as an input, but are conditioned purely on other mechanical states of affairs. [/QUOTE]
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