Mechanics or story?

[GreatLemur]

The question doesn't even make sense. Without some combination of rules and setting, you don't have RPGs any more.

Without both you don't have a complete RPG, certainly, but you can definitely have an RPG product. The Pirate's Guide to Freeport (all fluff) and the GURPS core rules (all crunch) come to mind.

 

[Mycanid]

Wow! Neck and neck! I voted "story", but I would like a nice balance, slightly wighted toward the story side of the scale, to be honest.

 

[BryonD]

The question doesn't even make sense. Without some combination of rules and setting, you don't have RPGs any more.

You have to have both parts. But you don't have to BUY both parts.
I could certainly run a game with nothing but the SRD and story of my own development.

Pretty much anything I buy the story parts get skimmed over in favor of the underlying ideas for modeling a system. Certainly a small percentage strikes me as inspirational. But not enough to justify the purchase.

Mechanics comes from books, story comes from the people playing the game.

 

[Nonlethal Force]

You have to have both parts. But you don't have to BUY both parts.
I could certainly run a game with nothing but the SRD and story of my own development.

Pretty much anything I buy the story parts get skimmed over in favor of the underlying ideas for modeling a system. Certainly a small percentage strikes me as inspirational. But not enough to justify the purchase.

Mechanics comes from books, story comes from the people playing the game.

Bingo. Well said.

Of course, that is assuming you come from a mindset like ours. There are other people who have a real eye for mechanics, but just aren't good storytellers. Thus, they need to buy the fluff and come up with the mechanics on their own.

To be a productive company, I think you need to produce both. To not have both is to neglect a potential audience.

Having said that, I again reiterate that I voted t buy mechanics. I can do the fluff myself.

 

[crazy_monkey1956]

Throw my vote in for "both and neither" also. I run my own settings and my own fluff, but I love to read published fluff and mine it for ideas and inspiration. So, even though I can generate my own fluff, I would still lean closer to all "fluff" books than to all mechanics since my games tend toward cooperative storytelling than "games" in the literal sense. On the other hand, I'd rather not have to generate my own mechanics and having the tools and the framework already there lets the story flow better.

So, if I had to choose one or the other...I wouldn't.

 

[Hjorimir]

If only the Shadowrun mechanics were 1/10th as good as the Setting...

Shadowrun d20?

I'd play.

 

[Faraer]

The question doesn't even make sense. Without some combination of rules and setting, you don't have RPGs any more.

I like supplements to have as much additional rules content (beyond the basic rules) as is needed to represent their ideas, which for me is rarely more than 'tiny elements of the other'.

 

[Falkus]

Mostly mechanics. I don't need elaborate stories, I just need a seed that my imagination can grasp. I can't, however, write overly elaborate mechanics to save my life.

 

[painandgreed]

The question doesn't even make sense. Without some combination of rules and setting, you don't have RPGs any more.

Hogwash. D&D and AD&D as well as a great many other games never came with any sort of story, yet we got along just fine. 3E doesn't have much of a story. Theoretically, Greyhawk is supposed to be the default setting, but this doesn't mean much except for a list of deities in the PHB which just makes it harder for DMs to exlain anything different to the PCs. Still, there's next to no story in core 3.5 even if you do include the fluff text from monster entries.

Certainly, there is a decent amount of story out there if you want it, but the game doesn't come with any. Traveller and WoD are a couple of games tha did well by providing both, however, there's always a possiblity that the system can do more harm than good.

 

[ThirdWizard]

I enjoy reading mechanics more.