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<blockquote data-quote="Celebrim" data-source="post: 6402017" data-attributes="member: 4937">I can totally sympathize with this sort of thing because really, so much of my tweaking and balancing often amounts to making it mechanically reasonable to be either that smash smash club wielding brute or else a psychotic 3' tall dagger wielding killer and you could save so much time by just offering no mechanical choices and making who you were entirely a matter of flavor.But on the other hand, there are points where it breaks down - and that guy running around giggling insanely while throwing handfuls of change at his enemies is one example.&nbsp; In the right kind of story, that's ok, but do we really want a guy armed with a rubber chicken and tossing peonies at the monsters and is that story necessarily welcoming to the rest of the groups goals?&nbsp; On the other end, if we do take being the club wielding brute or the dagger wielding 30lbs of death concepts seriously, then we expect at some level that there is some differences in when we are most advantaged and useful.&nbsp; And at some level, taking care of all of that solely in the fiction with no mechanical back up just doesn't work.&nbsp; The guy up there who said, &quot;Make sure your system matches your setting, because in the long run your setting will match your system&quot; (or something of the sort) gets it exactly right.&nbsp;&nbsp; And that also explains why I think rules lite systems can make great short games, but rarely long campaigns.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Celebrim, post: 6402017, member: 4937"] I can totally sympathize with this sort of thing because really, so much of my tweaking and balancing often amounts to making it mechanically reasonable to be either that smash smash club wielding brute or else a psychotic 3' tall dagger wielding killer and you could save so much time by just offering no mechanical choices and making who you were entirely a matter of flavor. But on the other hand, there are points where it breaks down - and that guy running around giggling insanely while throwing handfuls of change at his enemies is one example. In the right kind of story, that's ok, but do we really want a guy armed with a rubber chicken and tossing peonies at the monsters and is that story necessarily welcoming to the rest of the groups goals? On the other end, if we do take being the club wielding brute or the dagger wielding 30lbs of death concepts seriously, then we expect at some level that there is some differences in when we are most advantaged and useful. And at some level, taking care of all of that solely in the fiction with no mechanical back up just doesn't work. The guy up there who said, "Make sure your system matches your setting, because in the long run your setting will match your system" (or something of the sort) gets it exactly right. And that also explains why I think rules lite systems can make great short games, but rarely long campaigns. [/QUOTE]

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