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Message: <blockquote data-quote="pemerton" data-source="post: 9866949" data-attributes="member: 42582">I was wanting to make a post in this thread, and your post helped me focus my thoughts.To my mind, a lot of games that others characterise as "open" or "flexible" seem to me to be incomplete. That is, they don't actually set out procedures that the participants are expected to follow, in order to make the game "go". Rather, they just assume that the participants will bring prior expectations and experience with them.And so what I would add to your comments about mechanics is a comment about procedures and expectations for play. These all need to cohere, if the game is to be playable out of the box. And when these do cohere, the game will have a inherent, intended experience that (if played as written) it should deliver.For instance, Burning Wheel - my favourite FRPG - is as broad as other FRPGs in what it's play can encompass (upthread, [USER=6688749]@bss[/USER] mentioned "Rogues, monster hunts, maintaining justice/peace, participating in court intrigue, being pirates, etc - BW covers all that terrain, including the "etc"). But its procedures, mechanics and expectations are all clear, and integrated: play will be about the priorities that the players establish for their PCs (Beliefs, Instincts, Relationships, Affiliations, etc) and those things will be tested, and changed, as a result of play. It talks about these dimensions of play in its instructions both to players and GMs; but it doesn't merely pontificate. The rules, procedures and expectations make it happen.I think it's interesting to note the contrast between BW and 2024 D&D <<a href="https://www.dndbeyond.com/sources/dnd/br-2024/the-basics#TheSocialContractofAdventures" target="_blank">The Basics</a>>:The Social Contract of Adventures You must provide reasonably appealing reasons for characters to undertake the adventures you prepare. In exchange, the players should go along with those hooks. It’s OK for your players to give you some pushback on why their characters should want to do what you’re asking them to do, but it’s not OK for them to invalidate the hard work you’ve done preparing the adventure by willfully going in a different direction. If you feel like you’re keeping up your end of the bargain but your players aren’t, have a conversation with them away from the gaming table. Try to understand what hooks would motivate their characters, and make sure the players understand the work you put into preparing adventures for them.This is as "opinionated" as Burning Wheel. It just has a different opinion: play is not about player-established PC priorities; it's about the players playing their PCs through the material that the GM has prepared. That's not an especially broad RPG experience, although it's not one that Burning Wheel is well-suited to delivering.I'm not really looking for anything like that in FRPGing! Which is why I tend not to play RPGs that are based around it. And is probably why I don't find those RPGs more "broad" than the ones that I prefer.</blockquote>

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