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General Tabletop Discussion
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
Is BECMI the Best D&D Mechanically?
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<blockquote data-quote="Celebrim" data-source="post: 6218481" data-attributes="member: 4937"><p>I agree.</p><p></p><p>And this IMO hits on my assertion that there is no such things as a successful rules light system. </p><p></p><p>To be successful in an economic sense, a system needs to produce new supplements. But each supplement has a tendency to add to the rules until they cease to actually be light rules. This is because in fact, as supplements expand the definition of what it means to play the game - in this case beyond "You leave the Haven and entire the first level of the underground dungeon in search of the pie" - you find that there are gaps in the rules that need to be filled or which are at least tempting to fill. The rules expand until you can no longer claim they are rules light.</p><p></p><p>To be successful as a game, it means it has to be played often. But as a rules light system gets played often and for games of greater scope, it tends to acquire overtly or covertly a large body of table rules based on the rulings that have occurred in play to cover situations which are ambiguous or undefined under the rules. Gradually, these 'common law' rulings - even if they are never written down and just stay in the DMs head - increase in scope until if they were codified and organized the system would be revealed to no longer be rules light.</p><p></p><p>At the heart of every rules heavy system, is a successful rules light system. You can dig the original rules light system out from under the rules burden, but if you put it into play, it won't be long before the system has reacquired a thick coat of rules because rules just grow out of play organically. And if you are a publisher, rules light or not, you soon find out that crunch sells.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Celebrim, post: 6218481, member: 4937"] I agree. And this IMO hits on my assertion that there is no such things as a successful rules light system. To be successful in an economic sense, a system needs to produce new supplements. But each supplement has a tendency to add to the rules until they cease to actually be light rules. This is because in fact, as supplements expand the definition of what it means to play the game - in this case beyond "You leave the Haven and entire the first level of the underground dungeon in search of the pie" - you find that there are gaps in the rules that need to be filled or which are at least tempting to fill. The rules expand until you can no longer claim they are rules light. To be successful as a game, it means it has to be played often. But as a rules light system gets played often and for games of greater scope, it tends to acquire overtly or covertly a large body of table rules based on the rulings that have occurred in play to cover situations which are ambiguous or undefined under the rules. Gradually, these 'common law' rulings - even if they are never written down and just stay in the DMs head - increase in scope until if they were codified and organized the system would be revealed to no longer be rules light. At the heart of every rules heavy system, is a successful rules light system. You can dig the original rules light system out from under the rules burden, but if you put it into play, it won't be long before the system has reacquired a thick coat of rules because rules just grow out of play organically. And if you are a publisher, rules light or not, you soon find out that crunch sells. [/QUOTE]
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