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<blockquote data-quote="pemerton" data-source="post: 8117144" data-attributes="member: 42582">Most of my RPGing has been with non-D&amp;D systems.By hours, the system I've played the most is Rolemaster. Next would be 4e D&amp;D, and after that probably AD&amp;D.Over the past five years I've played a mix of non-D&amp;D systems: Burning Wheel, Classic Traveller, Prince Valiant, and MHRP/Cortex+ Heroic have been the main ones. This has included my own fantasy variant of Cortex+ Heroic Fantasy for <a href="https://www.enworld.org/threads/middle-earth-lotr-rpging-using-cortex-heroic.670013/" target="_blank">MERP/LotR</a>.I've never felt any particular tension between &quot;artistry&quot; and playability. In the context of D&amp;D, 4e is - to my mind - clearly the version of the game with the most deliberate aesthetic of world and characters, and also the most playable version in the sense of reliably delivering great RPG experiences.In a different sense of artistry, Classic Traveller has one of the strongest design aesthetics of the early RPGs - striking trade dress (the &quot;little black books&quot;); a uniform approach to PC build that is famous as one of the first &quot;lifepath&quot; PC gen systems; 2D6 for almost all rolls that the game calls for. And it's also a highly playable RPG, in my view much moreso than most of its contemporaries.Luke Crane's Burning Wheel books are full of authorial voice - maybe not as much as Baker's Apocalypse World, but heading in that direction - and BW is a great game that I love to play and GM.Trying to think of a RPG that felt evocative but I suspect is not all that playable, the first that came to mind is Monte Cook's Arcana Unearthed/Evolved. But I don't think its the evocative material that is the obstacle to playability - it's the baroque 3E-derived system.Conversely, a good, playable system is often itself the manifestation of artistry. Vincent Baker's games are probably the best examples of this. Poison'd is a game I may never play, but not because the artistry of it's design gets in the way - more for reasons of theme and content.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="pemerton, post: 8117144, member: 42582"] Most of my RPGing has been with non-D&D systems. By hours, the system I've played the most is Rolemaster. Next would be 4e D&D, and after that probably AD&D. Over the past five years I've played a mix of non-D&D systems: Burning Wheel, Classic Traveller, Prince Valiant, and MHRP/Cortex+ Heroic have been the main ones. This has included my own fantasy variant of Cortex+ Heroic Fantasy for [url=https://www.enworld.org/threads/middle-earth-lotr-rpging-using-cortex-heroic.670013/]MERP/LotR[/url]. I've never felt any particular tension between "artistry" and playability. In the context of D&D, 4e is - to my mind - clearly the version of the game with the most deliberate aesthetic of world and characters, and also the most playable version in the sense of reliably delivering great RPG experiences. In a different sense of artistry, Classic Traveller has one of the strongest design aesthetics of the early RPGs - striking trade dress (the "little black books"); a uniform approach to PC build that is famous as one of the first "lifepath" PC gen systems; 2D6 for almost all rolls that the game calls for. And it's also a highly playable RPG, in my view much moreso than most of its contemporaries. Luke Crane's Burning Wheel books are full of authorial voice - maybe not as much as Baker's Apocalypse World, but heading in that direction - and BW is a great game that I love to play and GM. Trying to think of a RPG that felt evocative but I suspect is not all that playable, the first that came to mind is Monte Cook's Arcana Unearthed/Evolved. But I don't think its the evocative material that is the obstacle to playability - it's the baroque 3E-derived system. Conversely, a good, playable system is often itself the manifestation of artistry. Vincent Baker's games are probably the best examples of this. Poison'd is a game I may never play, but not because the artistry of it's design gets in the way - more for reasons of theme and content. [/QUOTE]

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