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Jon Peterson: Does System Matter?
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<blockquote data-quote="Ovinomancer" data-source="post: 8215886" data-attributes="member: 16814"><p>I assume no such thing. My point is that absent system, you're not playing a game anymore. System, specifically agreed to conflict resolution, is required for a game. It's what separates a game from free play. There's a fuzzy line at the transition, of course, but at the point we get to RPGs it's no longer fuzzy. System is necessary for play of an RPG. It isn't sufficient for it, though, and I haven't argued otherwise.</p><p></p><p>What I was arguing against in your post was the statement that players' creativity and investment trumps systems every time. And, my point (it was in the bits you cut out) was when system is supposedly trumped, what actually happens is a different system is swapped in. Usually that system is "GM decides," although, to be fair, 5e largely rests on this system to begin with, so it's not really swapped in there so much as leveraged when the other bits of system conflict with a play goal. System is always present, and always matters to the play at hand. The confusion around this statement is usually in the form of missing that substitution of one system for another when creativity "trumps."</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Ovinomancer, post: 8215886, member: 16814"] I assume no such thing. My point is that absent system, you're not playing a game anymore. System, specifically agreed to conflict resolution, is required for a game. It's what separates a game from free play. There's a fuzzy line at the transition, of course, but at the point we get to RPGs it's no longer fuzzy. System is necessary for play of an RPG. It isn't sufficient for it, though, and I haven't argued otherwise. What I was arguing against in your post was the statement that players' creativity and investment trumps systems every time. And, my point (it was in the bits you cut out) was when system is supposedly trumped, what actually happens is a different system is swapped in. Usually that system is "GM decides," although, to be fair, 5e largely rests on this system to begin with, so it's not really swapped in there so much as leveraged when the other bits of system conflict with a play goal. System is always present, and always matters to the play at hand. The confusion around this statement is usually in the form of missing that substitution of one system for another when creativity "trumps." [/QUOTE]
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