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Message: <blockquote data-quote="pemerton" data-source="post: 8423638" data-attributes="member: 42582">My general sense of the FKR stuff I've read, and of what you're mentioning here - which obviously is not disconnected from their stuff - is that by rules is meant something like mechanics for action resolution, including action resolution subsystems.The contrast would be with rules that aren't expressed mechanically (eg most of what is GM-side in Apocalypse World) or with systems for generating content - like most of Book 3 in Classic Traveller.Do you agree with this?To me, this seems consistent with my suggestion upthread that the paradigm target of FKR criticisms of rules is D&D 3E. 5e D&D has a degree of overlap, including (but not limited to) elements of PC build which are definitely not descriptors (eg the rogue's cunning action; the fighter's action surge; etc).Here is a controversial assertion: a good chunk of RPGers don't really want fiction-first RPGing in the Apocalypse World or Cthulhu Dark sense. They prefer a more boardgame-like experience for their combat resolution, with unstructured but relatively low-stakes free roleplay in between combats. Up those stakes too much and you will find a lot of the sort of pushback that (say) will come out in any discussion of ToH (too much "gotcha"; why does the PC's Perception and Engineering skill not factor into things; etc). Put too much structure on it and you will find a lot of the sort of pushback that (say) will come out in any discussion of 4e skill challenges (a "dice rolling exercise"; why do we have to get N successes even if our plan is brilliant; etc). And zooming out a bit, there seems to be a widespread expectation/aspiration that GM curation of the fiction is a, maybe the, main way of ensuring that the fiction is nicely-paced and satisfactory in its content.Obviously the above is a coarse-grained generalisation. And I can't prove that the two sorts of pushback, and the expression of the aspiration, all come from much the same people. It's my impression of things.</blockquote>

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