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Message: <blockquote data-quote="The-Magic-Sword" data-source="post: 8316470" data-attributes="member: 6801252">Jumping in, the answer is that one nuanced element of 'system matters' is that sometimes you <a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/_ubu3xfFJMTQ/S7TS4iuMFnI/AAAAAAAAAZE/JUSRsahPOI0/s1600/rollplaying+for+roleplaying.jpg" target="_blank">don't want system where it doesn't belong</a> (this being a 4e era april fools joke from WOTC) as an intentional design choice. Sometimes a designer says 'this part of the game needs a lot of rules because we think its hard for the GM to adjudicate well, or because we want a curated metagame to form around it' and then they say 'this other area of the game doesn't need many rules because you can just do it, and the experience won't be unfair or inferior, or our broad skill system and action resolution system cover it.' "D&D has no rules for managing the state of relationships between different characters, for instance. Nor for modelling factions, as another example of something you might want. "My instinct is actually that I don't need a system for managing the state of relationships between different characters, nor do even the newest of GMs. That is more suitably handled by the GM's own sense of how the narrative elements might naturally progress. We did that kind of stuff in play by post roleplaying on forums when I was 10, so I can't imagine its a particularly necessary system to have. Granted, one could certainly produce a fun game by mechanizing it, because that could create particular ways of playing off it-- Masks does so for instance, but it isn't per say a superior experience to managing it in DND, just a more curated one, and one where you trade some agency concerning your character's mental state in exchange for mechanics that actively push the narrative-- the snowballing of tension and situation mentioned up thread. That being said, are you positive DND doesn't have those things? I seem to remember it having some systems for managing social relationships we didn't use, and a faction system somewhere. Pathfinder 2e certainly has both of those things, designed in a modular way so you can decide if you need or want them without blowing a hole in the game by leaving them out. I seem to remember 4e giving plenty of guidance on them as well.</blockquote>

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