Reply to thread

Message

<blockquote data-quote="Celebrim" data-source="post: 7680913" data-attributes="member: 4937">Because 'rules lite' approaches tend to be marginal even within the hobby.&nbsp; Crunchy high granular systems overall have dominated what people are actually playing, thinking about, or at least buying - AD&amp;D, Top Secret, Shadowrun, GURPS, CoC, HERO, MERPS, RIFTS, RoleMaster, etc.&nbsp;&nbsp; They were what was on the shelf.&nbsp; And even those systems that started out somewhat rules lite (if not necessarily intentionally) tend to evolve into increasingly baroque rules heavy systems if they are successful in the market place (0D&amp;D, V:tM, etc.).&nbsp; I'm trying to think what the lightest enduring rules sets/games might be and maybe WoD, BECMI, Deadlands, and Star Wars D6 might be the lower bounds, and those fall into what we might generously call 'rules medium'.&nbsp; We can tell because of what we are playing, even if in the larger universe what we are playing even at its most successful is pretty marginal. Among other things, exactly that.&nbsp; Some of the more notably successful rules light systems are notable for being based around free games, suggesting that not selling your rules lite system might be a way around the problem.Sure.&nbsp; And systems that have gone the too complicated route have largely died along the way, mostly 20 years or so ago as the promises of 'realism' as a solution to any game problem experienced with early versions of the rules turned out to be false.&nbsp;&nbsp; I don't know how much you remember of the era, but there was a period where all the problems with the D&amp;D rule set tended to be blamed on its lack of realism, and the big selling point of a rules set generally wasn't &quot;this is easier to use&quot; but that it was &quot;more realistic&quot;.&nbsp;&nbsp; But while its true that fetishized realism produced systems that ultimately aren't played much any more, that doesn't mean that the systems that are still played are on the &quot;rule lite&quot; end of the spectrum.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Celebrim, post: 7680913, member: 4937"] Because 'rules lite' approaches tend to be marginal even within the hobby. Crunchy high granular systems overall have dominated what people are actually playing, thinking about, or at least buying - AD&D, Top Secret, Shadowrun, GURPS, CoC, HERO, MERPS, RIFTS, RoleMaster, etc. They were what was on the shelf. And even those systems that started out somewhat rules lite (if not necessarily intentionally) tend to evolve into increasingly baroque rules heavy systems if they are successful in the market place (0D&D, V:tM, etc.). I'm trying to think what the lightest enduring rules sets/games might be and maybe WoD, BECMI, Deadlands, and Star Wars D6 might be the lower bounds, and those fall into what we might generously call 'rules medium'. We can tell because of what we are playing, even if in the larger universe what we are playing even at its most successful is pretty marginal. Among other things, exactly that. Some of the more notably successful rules light systems are notable for being based around free games, suggesting that not selling your rules lite system might be a way around the problem. Sure. And systems that have gone the too complicated route have largely died along the way, mostly 20 years or so ago as the promises of 'realism' as a solution to any game problem experienced with early versions of the rules turned out to be false. I don't know how much you remember of the era, but there was a period where all the problems with the D&D rule set tended to be blamed on its lack of realism, and the big selling point of a rules set generally wasn't "this is easier to use" but that it was "more realistic". But while its true that fetishized realism produced systems that ultimately aren't played much any more, that doesn't mean that the systems that are still played are on the "rule lite" end of the spectrum. [/QUOTE]

Verification