overgeeked
Open-World Sandbox
No, I'm actually saying the opposite. System matters quite a lot. So much so that it's a problem. What starts as a smart and fashionable smoking jacket quickly turns into a straight jacket.
Systems focus and limit the imagination. But the imagination is limitless. Mechanics are limited and limiting. The heavier the mechanics the more limiting they are. RPGs exist in a weird Venn diagram space between limitless imagination and limited mechanics. To even approach representing a real person in a real situation (definitely my goal, immersion, verisimilitude, etc), you need either rules for everything which needlessly bog the game down and take far too long to resolve or you need very limited rules that cover most if not all the ground. We don't need more mechanics than basic task/conflict resolution. Yet, for some weird reason the hobby has bought into the idea that we must have lots of bespoke mechanics to play, when we really don't. I'm not interested in a boardgame with a bit of theater on top. I want immersion and verisimilitude. And to me, the best way to get that is to recognize that the rules are unnecessary limitations and to get the rules out of the way.
I’ll quote Jonathan Tweet and Robin Laws from Over the Edge 2nd Edition:
“And why the simple mechanics? Two reasons: First, complex mechanics invariably channel and limit the imagination; second, my neurons have better things to do than calculate numbers and refer to charts all evening. Complex mechanics, in their effort to tell you what you can do, generally do a fair job of implying what you cannot do.”
And this from Matt Mercer:
“This is a testament to why I love playing with newer players. There’s a cycle I’m noticing, through the years of playing. Like a player cycle. When you first begin, you don’t know the boundaries that a lot of experienced players expect or understand. The more you know the game, the more you tend to, more often than not, stay within the confines of what the game establishes as the rules. When you’re new to it, you don’t really understand that so you take wider swings, you make stranger choices. You really kind of push against those boundaries because you don’t know where the boundaries are. You’re like a kid learning to how to walk for the first time and bumping into the furniture. And it’s wonderful, and eventually you kind of fall into those lines and not always, but sometimes you find yourself kind of subconsciously sticking, coloring within the lines because you’ve learned to do so. Then over time you begin to realize you’ve been doing that. And then you go back to being weird again. And that’s my other favorite point. It’s new players or extremely experienced players who have come back to reclaim their ‘stupid’ youth as players.”
