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Jon Peterson: Does System Matter?
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<blockquote data-quote="pemerton" data-source="post: 8207123" data-attributes="member: 42582"><p><em>What I want to get out this episode of RPGing</em> is a preference.</p><p></p><p><em>What techniques, processes of play, resolution methods, etc will achieve that preference </em>is not primarily a matter of preference. Like any other question of <em>means to ends </em>it's about cause-and-effect relationships.</p><p></p><p>In the context of RPGing, those cause-and-effect relationships are fairly complicated, and not all of them are under the control of the participants. (Eg most people can't control their personality, except within very narrow limits.) A fortiori not all of them are under the control of the GM.</p><p></p><p>But to go tack to the example of a gritty futuristic sci-fi horror scenario, here are some relevant cause-and-effect relationships:</p><p></p><p style="margin-left: 20px">* If everything is decided by GM fiat, and some of that involves PCs being attacked by or even eaten by Aliens, the players may feel they've been hosed by the GM;</p> <p style="margin-left: 20px"></p> <p style="margin-left: 20px">* If the players have an unlimited depth of resources, including by having their PCs call in assistance via their communicators, the horror and maybe also the grittiness will be undermined;</p> <p style="margin-left: 20px"></p> <p style="margin-left: 20px">* Related to the previous point, if the players do not fear their PCs' encounter(s) with the Alien(s), the horror and grittiness will be undermined;</p> <p style="margin-left: 20px"></p> <p style="margin-left: 20px">* If the challenge posed by the Aliens becomes primarily a tactical one, the grittiness might be preserved but we're no longer doing horror.</p><p></p><p>These are all system things. Some systems give the GM extreme authority over framing; some give the players a lot of de facto authority over framing (eg the role of <em>detection</em> magic in classic D&D, or of similar psionic abilities in some sci-fi games); some make at least aspects of framing a matter for surprise mechanics; etc.</p><p></p><p>Different systems give the players different degrees of ability to establish and leverage "off screen" resources. Thinking of this primarily through the lens of <em>genre</em> (eg sci-fi PCs have access to communicators) tends to obscure the practical RPGing issue, which is about the interplay between the established fiction, the implicit fiction, and player authority.</p><p></p><p>The "feel" of encounters between PCs and hostile creatures will be affected by how things are framed, what resources the players have access to, and how resolution works. For instance, if shooting and biting and the like have a strong "sudden death" aspect to them, and if retreating is low-cost in terms of player resources, the likelihood of such encounters - once framed - turning tactical is reduced. To name specific RPGs, Classic Traveller produces a very different result here from 4e D&D.</p><p></p><p>These are the sorts of things I have in mind when I say that <em>system matters</em>.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="pemerton, post: 8207123, member: 42582"] [I]What I want to get out this episode of RPGing[/I] is a preference. [I]What techniques, processes of play, resolution methods, etc will achieve that preference [/I]is not primarily a matter of preference. Like any other question of [I]means to ends [/I]it's about cause-and-effect relationships. In the context of RPGing, those cause-and-effect relationships are fairly complicated, and not all of them are under the control of the participants. (Eg most people can't control their personality, except within very narrow limits.) A fortiori not all of them are under the control of the GM. But to go tack to the example of a gritty futuristic sci-fi horror scenario, here are some relevant cause-and-effect relationships: [indent]* If everything is decided by GM fiat, and some of that involves PCs being attacked by or even eaten by Aliens, the players may feel they've been hosed by the GM; * If the players have an unlimited depth of resources, including by having their PCs call in assistance via their communicators, the horror and maybe also the grittiness will be undermined; * Related to the previous point, if the players do not fear their PCs' encounter(s) with the Alien(s), the horror and grittiness will be undermined; * If the challenge posed by the Aliens becomes primarily a tactical one, the grittiness might be preserved but we're no longer doing horror.[/indent] These are all system things. Some systems give the GM extreme authority over framing; some give the players a lot of de facto authority over framing (eg the role of [I]detection[/I] magic in classic D&D, or of similar psionic abilities in some sci-fi games); some make at least aspects of framing a matter for surprise mechanics; etc. Different systems give the players different degrees of ability to establish and leverage "off screen" resources. Thinking of this primarily through the lens of [I]genre[/I] (eg sci-fi PCs have access to communicators) tends to obscure the practical RPGing issue, which is about the interplay between the established fiction, the implicit fiction, and player authority. The "feel" of encounters between PCs and hostile creatures will be affected by how things are framed, what resources the players have access to, and how resolution works. For instance, if shooting and biting and the like have a strong "sudden death" aspect to them, and if retreating is low-cost in terms of player resources, the likelihood of such encounters - once framed - turning tactical is reduced. To name specific RPGs, Classic Traveller produces a very different result here from 4e D&D. These are the sorts of things I have in mind when I say that [I]system matters[/I]. [/QUOTE]
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