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<blockquote data-quote="pemerton" data-source="post: 8472658" data-attributes="member: 42582">I don't think I said anything about anything being &quot;freeing&quot;. I denied that complex combat rules are necessary to have differences of fighting style matter other than as flavour; and denied that using fictional positioning and consequences to do so cannot be anything but arbitrary.If the participants at the table, and especially the GM, are not able to imaginatively work with the fiction, that will be a problem. But that is not a problem of arbitrariness; it's a problem of lack of skilled imagination.In complex combat systems, a problem can arise if the GM is not able to apply the rules and their interactions with technical expertise. I know that this can be a real problem, as I've seen it many times, mostly with D&amp;D GMs, and I read posts about it quite often. This is also not a problem of arbitrariness, although it can give rise to one if the GM starts just making things up rather than following the rules that the players have built and planned around (and I've experienced this too).As far as my preferences go, there are both relatively light RPGs (eg Prince Valiant) and relatively heavy ones (eg Burning Wheel) that I enjoy and try to play regularly. There are also RPGs I like that I would think of as having intermediate complexity (eg Classic Traveller, MHRP/Cortex+ Heroic, and Agon).</blockquote>

[QUOTE="pemerton, post: 8472658, member: 42582"] I don't think I said anything about anything being "freeing". I denied that complex combat rules are necessary to have differences of fighting style matter other than as flavour; and denied that using fictional positioning and consequences to do so cannot be anything but arbitrary. If the participants at the table, and especially the GM, are not able to imaginatively work with the fiction, that will be a problem. But that is not a problem of [i]arbitrariness[/i]; it's a problem of [i]lack of skilled imagination[/i]. In complex combat systems, a problem can arise if the GM is not able to apply the rules and their interactions with technical expertise. I know that this can be a real problem, as I've seen it many times, mostly with D&D GMs, and I read posts about it quite often. This is also not a problem of arbitrariness, although it can give rise to one if the GM starts just making things up rather than following the rules that the players have built and planned around (and I've experienced this too). As far as my preferences go, there are both relatively light RPGs (eg Prince Valiant) and relatively heavy ones (eg Burning Wheel) that I enjoy and try to play regularly. There are also RPGs I like that I would think of as having intermediate complexity (eg Classic Traveller, MHRP/Cortex+ Heroic, and Agon). [/QUOTE]

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