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<blockquote data-quote="Thomas Shey" data-source="post: 9504297" data-attributes="member: 7026617">I'll give an example of what I'm talking about.&nbsp; I've previously avoided doing this in this thread because I really try to avoid the &quot;if you just played a real game&quot; narrative that sometimes comes up.&nbsp; To make it clear, its not the game system I have used for Fantasy most frequently in my gaming life (most of the ones I have have been the hybrids I reference earlier).The Hero System is based on constructing a set of standard components that are used to represent various things.&nbsp; There are a bunch of tools for making exceptions to those basic components, but those tools themselves are standardized.&nbsp; While they can be sometimes put together in different ways to get the result you want, the result is not a black box that was pulled out of nowhere; where the components come from are visible in the book(s) involved.Now, not everyone is going to be a fan of this approach on various grounds.&nbsp; The one I see most commonly (and have the least tolerance for) is that it makes &quot;everything look samey&quot;.&nbsp; In terms of individuals' saying that, that may be true (but I cynically wonder if they hit those constructs without the machinery visible if they'd feel the same), but its again, giving a free pass to feels when the feels are clearly not universal (or Fantasy Hero wouldn't have existed for decades, even if the player base for it is a drop in the bucket compared to D&amp;D (but then, that describes most games)).&nbsp; But you're never in a situation of &quot;okay, we're going straight to whatever idiosyncratic mechanic for this spell/talent that you've never seen before or once in a blue moon&quot;.&nbsp; And on the whole, that's what D&amp;D has done throughout most of its history.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Thomas Shey, post: 9504297, member: 7026617"] I'll give an example of what I'm talking about. I've previously avoided doing this in this thread because I really try to avoid the "if you just played a real game" narrative that sometimes comes up. To make it clear, its not the game system I have used for Fantasy most frequently in my gaming life (most of the ones I have have been the hybrids I reference earlier). The Hero System is based on constructing a set of standard components that are used to represent various things. There are a bunch of tools for making exceptions to those basic components, but [I]those tools themselves are standardized. [/I]While they can be sometimes put together in different ways to get the result you want, the result is not a black box that was pulled out of nowhere; where the components come from are visible in the book(s) involved. Now, not everyone is going to be a fan of this approach on various grounds. The one I see most commonly (and have the least tolerance for) is that it makes "everything look samey". In terms of individuals' saying that, that may be true (but I cynically wonder if they hit those constructs without the machinery visible if they'd feel the same), but its again, giving a free pass to feels when the feels are clearly not universal (or Fantasy Hero wouldn't have existed for decades, even if the player base for it is a drop in the bucket compared to D&D (but then, that describes most games)). But you're never in a situation of "okay, we're going straight to whatever idiosyncratic mechanic for this spell/talent that you've never seen before or once in a blue moon". And on the whole, that's what D&D has done throughout most of its history. [/QUOTE]

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