Bacon Bits
Legend
This feels like it's driving back towards, "What is the purpose of the rules?"
I think TTRPGs are one of the most complex games that has been developed. I don't think that's a good thing; I just think that many TTRPGs are games that have developed so many disparate modes of play that complexity has naturally followed them.
But at it's core, TTRPGs are about bringing concord to a blended game of Make Believe and/or Storytelling. That is to say, the rules exist to let the table agree on how they will come to mutual agreement on the outcomes of events in the game world before anything happens in the game world.
Without concord, eventually you get back to:
A: I shot you! You're dead!
B: No you didn't!
A: Yes I did!
B: Well, I have bulletproof armor!
A: No you don't!
B: Yes I do!
And thus the attack roll was born out of need to stop arguments.
FKR seems like creating a nearly minimal set of rules for determining concord and going with them, but I don't think they're uniquely minimal.
Overall, I think what's here reminds me more of Amber Diceless, where concord is determined without dice and is based on bidding, costs, and precedence at the start of the game. I think that actually feels like a more pure form of FKR. Don't bother with dice; the dice are random. They don't know how to play Make Believe or Storytelling. Start with a negotiation for whom gets authority in a given aspect of the game, and then by invoking aspects each player can influence the game world. Like most Storytelling games, you only lose if the story ends. Like most Make Believe games, the idea is to persist the fiction.
A referee is only needed if creating a world that is consistent and independent of observed knowledge is desirable. That is to say, if the world is expected to be able to do things for reasons that none of the characters know about, it can be easiest to create a referee to be the player of the character of the world. In this way, the other players have less susceptibility to having their characters act from the knowledge they should not have. It makes playing the game easier, but it's not needed.
I think TTRPGs are one of the most complex games that has been developed. I don't think that's a good thing; I just think that many TTRPGs are games that have developed so many disparate modes of play that complexity has naturally followed them.
But at it's core, TTRPGs are about bringing concord to a blended game of Make Believe and/or Storytelling. That is to say, the rules exist to let the table agree on how they will come to mutual agreement on the outcomes of events in the game world before anything happens in the game world.
Without concord, eventually you get back to:
A: I shot you! You're dead!
B: No you didn't!
A: Yes I did!
B: Well, I have bulletproof armor!
A: No you don't!
B: Yes I do!
And thus the attack roll was born out of need to stop arguments.
FKR seems like creating a nearly minimal set of rules for determining concord and going with them, but I don't think they're uniquely minimal.
Overall, I think what's here reminds me more of Amber Diceless, where concord is determined without dice and is based on bidding, costs, and precedence at the start of the game. I think that actually feels like a more pure form of FKR. Don't bother with dice; the dice are random. They don't know how to play Make Believe or Storytelling. Start with a negotiation for whom gets authority in a given aspect of the game, and then by invoking aspects each player can influence the game world. Like most Storytelling games, you only lose if the story ends. Like most Make Believe games, the idea is to persist the fiction.
A referee is only needed if creating a world that is consistent and independent of observed knowledge is desirable. That is to say, if the world is expected to be able to do things for reasons that none of the characters know about, it can be easiest to create a referee to be the player of the character of the world. In this way, the other players have less susceptibility to having their characters act from the knowledge they should not have. It makes playing the game easier, but it's not needed.