Reply to thread

Message

<blockquote data-quote="Siberys" data-source="post: 6356152" data-attributes="member: 30619">That could very possibly be observational bias - older games seemed harder to you because, when you first ran into them, you were less skilled than you are now. And if it's not that, it could be because of the growth in popularity of games of that type - you see more dumber games just because there's more games.Most of the problems described in the OP seem to me to be things that, in TTRPGs, would be under the control of the GM. I mean, if the GM is taking cues from games that make these decisions, that may be bad, but as has been noted previously, those decisions weren't made in a vacuum. If running a game that way delivers the experience the GM is aiming, go for it. As a matter of fact, it's imperative, IMO, that a GM learn this lesson - ignore the stuff that doesn't result in the feel you're going for! If you're not going for a gritty, resource-management-is-king feel, don't track ammo. If you're playing a game with a lighter tone, take death off of the table as a possibility. At that point, all you're really saying &quot;this won't be fun in this context, so let's make sure it doesn't happen.&quot;I've gotten to the point, as a hobbyist programmer and a hobbyist gamer, that large rulesets seem dumber to me than smaller ones. This is because large rulesets feel like programming languages to me, and I'm very familiar with the limitations of programming languages. Why waste all of my mental capacity resolving stuff with this system, when another just takes my existing expectations and runs with 'em? In the same way that you can't go outside the bounds of a computer game's plot, it's more difficult to go outside the bounds of a published game the heavier it is. Now, that's fine if you're aiming at a particular experience, but the games that aim for evoking specific outcomes are usually (though admittedly not always) also lighter.&nbsp;I guess what I'm saying is that you can dumb down (or &quot;simplify,&quot; if you prefer) mechanics without dumbing down the game.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Siberys, post: 6356152, member: 30619"] That could very possibly be observational bias - older games seemed harder to you because, when you first ran into them, you were less skilled than you are now. And if it's not that, it could be because of the growth in popularity of games of that type - you see more dumber games just because there's more games. Most of the problems described in the OP seem to me to be things that, in TTRPGs, would be under the control of the GM. I mean, if the GM is taking cues from games that make these decisions, that may be bad, but as has been noted previously, those decisions weren't made in a vacuum. If running a game that way delivers the experience the GM is aiming, go for it. As a matter of fact, it's imperative, IMO, that a GM learn this lesson - ignore the stuff that doesn't result in the feel you're going for! If you're not going for a gritty, resource-management-is-king feel, don't track ammo. If you're playing a game with a lighter tone, take death off of the table as a possibility. At that point, all you're really saying "this won't be fun in this context, so let's make sure it doesn't happen." I've gotten to the point, as a hobbyist programmer and a hobbyist gamer, that large rulesets seem dumber to me than smaller ones. This is because large rulesets feel like programming languages to me, and I'm very familiar with the limitations of programming languages. Why waste all of my mental capacity resolving stuff with this system, when another just takes my existing expectations and runs with 'em? In the same way that you can't go outside the bounds of a computer game's plot, it's more difficult to go outside the bounds of a published game the heavier it is. Now, that's fine if you're aiming at a particular experience, but the games that aim for evoking specific outcomes are usually (though admittedly not always) also lighter. I guess what I'm saying is that you can dumb down (or "simplify," if you prefer) mechanics without dumbing down the game. [/QUOTE]

Verification