Meaning of Rules Light/Medium/Heavy - a proposal

[pemerton]

Too many people talk about rules light, medium, and heavy with no clear definitions of what they actually are. So I'm proposing the following as a starting point:

A game is Rules Light if:

• The entire actual game rules can be written on a double sided sheet of A4.
• PC character sheets can be written on an index card with minimal jargon.
• Complete NPC statblocks can be scrawled on a single post-it note
• Someone with five minutes of rules explanation can look at those statblocks and character sheets, see what they are saying, and are ready to pick up dice.

A game is Rules Medium if:
It is neither rules light nor rules heavy. (Sorry).

Or in short there is jargon that looks incomprehensible to the layman such as acronyms (THAC0, BAB, [2W]+Cha, etc.), the character sheet is more than a sie of A4, but you don't expect to open the rulebooks other than to look up discrete statblocks (and even then it isn't catastrophic if you leave all the rulebooks behind as long as everyone has access to their character sheets) and the resolution mechanics don't get fiddly.

A game is Rules Heavy if it has one of the following:

• Using rulebooks in play: You are expected to make any cross-references to actual rulebooks in actual play. (The most common example of this in what could otherwise be a rules medium game is a spell list - that refers to the rules for the actual spell printed either somewhere else in the rulebook or in another rulebook; Rolemaster with one chart wouldn't be rules heavy as you can put that on the back of a DM screen)
• Fiddly rolling mechanics: There is any rolling mechanic that requires anything more than simple mental arithmetic, direct comparisons of dice, or cancelling of dice. (Adding two percentile numbers is generally more than simple mental arithmetic, as is adding three modifiers and a basic number to a d20 roll - 5e manages to escape this by means of Advantage/Disadvantage replacing most modifiers)
• Analysis Paralysis: A sensible and coherent character is frequently created with more than two or three superficially similar options that may be used at the same time in the course of play and there is no obvious way to simplify this.

Or in short a game is rules heavy if any of the mechanics slow the game down.

This measure makes most of the games I play and like the most (RM, D&D, RQ, BW) rules heavy. That seems right.

It comes close to making Marvel Heroic RP rules light - the rules can be written on 1 side of A4 (with small-ish font) because I've done it; but that requires treating the descriptors as natural-language rather than looking up the book for the longer paragraphs on powers and specialties. What would you say about MHRP - light or medium? (I don't think it's heavy.)

 

[Aldarc]

[MENTION=87792]Neonchameleon[/MENTION]: So where would this put systems like Fate (Core vs. Accelerated), Numenera, 7th Seas (1st or 2nd ed.), or Savage Worlds? I would like to see more examples, particularly if I wanted to demonstrate these categories with my players.

 

[Neonchameleon]

This measure makes most of the games I play and like the most (RM, D&D, RQ, BW) rules heavy. That seems right.

It comes close to making Marvel Heroic RP rules light - the rules can be written on 1 side of A4 (with small-ish font) because I've done it; but that requires treating the descriptors as natural-language rather than looking up the book for the longer paragraphs on powers and specialties. What would you say about MHRP - light or medium? (I don't think it's heavy.)

Marvel Heroic is just in the rules medium category, although it's almost a breaching experiment on rules light. If you can get a decent supervillain onto a post-it note in a few seconds then you've smaller and more legible writting than I do.

@Neonchameleon: So where would this put systems like Fate (Core vs. Accelerated), Numenera, 7th Seas (1st or 2nd ed.), or Savage Worlds? I would like to see more examples, particularly if I wanted to demonstrate these categories with my players.

Fate Accelerated is definitely rules light and Fate Core generally is (Trifold Fate predates Fate Core by years). I've never actually played Numenera or 7th Seas, but Numenera if I have things right you need the books with you most of the time in part due to a D&Desque approach to magic. From memory I think Savage Worlds is a medium.