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D&D's Evolution: Rulings, Rules, and "System Matters"
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<blockquote data-quote="clearstream" data-source="post: 8396942" data-attributes="member: 71699"><p>As I noted, I see the play styles working to differing ends, and of course where that lands depends on what one takes those ends to be in the first place!</p><p></p><p>For example, one of the key ends of D&D - and I suspect part of why it is so broadly appealing - is character progression. Take a look at Cthulhu Dark, or I could link my own light game or that of friends who regularly post me their latest takes on their own games. The key progression in the CoC-genre is always to the cliff edge. There is no gaining powerful features that allow you to drive a stake into the emergent narrative. Even though the published version of CD is 200 pages long, those pages don't provide scaffolding for character advancement. If I had to put it as briefly as possible, I would say that ultralight games are in the moment - flow is crucial.</p><p></p><p>Could I write a game that was ultralight <em>and</em> had deep character progression. I think I could start a game on that journey with very few rules, but by the time we had gotten far - by the time characters actually had progression - we'd find we had a lot of rules in the form of things characters had done and could do again. That is what happened with a friend's "Immortals" ultralight or diceless game. At the start we had virtually no rules. Down the line, we had individual characters with small books of rules. You then have to make a decision - how much do you care about character progression, and how much do you want to get back to being in the moment? Do you want to make it possible for other players - elsewhere - to follow the arcs of progression that you did? Or will your minimal rules be the seeds of shooting stars?</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="clearstream, post: 8396942, member: 71699"] As I noted, I see the play styles working to differing ends, and of course where that lands depends on what one takes those ends to be in the first place! For example, one of the key ends of D&D - and I suspect part of why it is so broadly appealing - is character progression. Take a look at Cthulhu Dark, or I could link my own light game or that of friends who regularly post me their latest takes on their own games. The key progression in the CoC-genre is always to the cliff edge. There is no gaining powerful features that allow you to drive a stake into the emergent narrative. Even though the published version of CD is 200 pages long, those pages don't provide scaffolding for character advancement. If I had to put it as briefly as possible, I would say that ultralight games are in the moment - flow is crucial. Could I write a game that was ultralight [I]and[/I] had deep character progression. I think I could start a game on that journey with very few rules, but by the time we had gotten far - by the time characters actually had progression - we'd find we had a lot of rules in the form of things characters had done and could do again. That is what happened with a friend's "Immortals" ultralight or diceless game. At the start we had virtually no rules. Down the line, we had individual characters with small books of rules. You then have to make a decision - how much do you care about character progression, and how much do you want to get back to being in the moment? Do you want to make it possible for other players - elsewhere - to follow the arcs of progression that you did? Or will your minimal rules be the seeds of shooting stars? [/QUOTE]
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