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<blockquote data-quote="hawkeyefan" data-source="post: 8843257" data-attributes="member: 6785785">I've not played Wanderhome, and my knowledge of it is limited to it being based on Avery Alder's Belonging Outside Belonging system.As such, I expect that it has rules. Perhaps not the kind of things we tend to think of when we think of RPGs.... stats and hit points and armor class and so on. But it has rules about who's in charge of what, who decides what and when, and so on. I believe the Belonging system has Moves that players make, much like PbtA games. Not sure if that's still the case in Wanderhome.Saying that rules are vital is not the same as saying that more rules is better. Or that specific rules are better than broad ones. There can be games that are rules light and are great games. There can also be games that benefit from some complex elements. There are games that mix both effectively.But whatever game we're talking about, chances are the amount of rules and the types of rules that were decided upon were not, as the OP suggests: &quot;just some stuff someone thought up at the moment. They probably aren't even particularly well thought out&quot;. Quite the opposite. They were designed to produce a specific play experience. Very likely quite a lot of thought was put into them over a potentially long period of time.The rules ARE the game.So the designers of Wanderhome didn't accidentally come up with their choice of system, and then mistakenly tweak it to suit their goals. No, they thought about what the goal of the game was meant to be, and then they picked rules that suited that goal and their themes and overall aesthetic. They created the game deliberately.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="hawkeyefan, post: 8843257, member: 6785785"] I've not played Wanderhome, and my knowledge of it is limited to it being based on Avery Alder's Belonging Outside Belonging system. As such, I expect that it has rules. Perhaps not the kind of things we tend to think of when we think of RPGs.... stats and hit points and armor class and so on. But it has rules about who's in charge of what, who decides what and when, and so on. I believe the Belonging system has Moves that players make, much like PbtA games. Not sure if that's still the case in Wanderhome. Saying that rules are vital is not the same as saying that more rules is better. Or that specific rules are better than broad ones. There can be games that are rules light and are great games. There can also be games that benefit from some complex elements. There are games that mix both effectively. But whatever game we're talking about, chances are the amount of rules and the types of rules that were decided upon were not, as the OP suggests: "just some stuff someone thought up at the moment. They probably aren't even particularly well thought out". Quite the opposite. They were designed to produce a specific play experience. Very likely quite a lot of thought was put into them over a potentially long period of time. The rules ARE the game. So the designers of Wanderhome didn't accidentally come up with their choice of system, and then mistakenly tweak it to suit their goals. No, they thought about what the goal of the game was meant to be, and then they picked rules that suited that goal and their themes and overall aesthetic. They created the game deliberately. [/QUOTE]

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