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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Neonchameleon" data-source="post: 8474396" data-attributes="member: 87792">This is the post that prompted me to create a spinoff thread asking what rules medium even is. I know I have a full working definition when I use it for what to me qualifies as rules medium, and I also know that my definition is part-advocacy of things I like seeing.<ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">A rules medium game isn't rules light because there are emergent interactions that mean you sometimes have to think about the consequences in non-obvious ways.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">A rules medium game isn't rules heavy because you can leave the rulebooks at home and rely on the character sheets/NPC statblocks and maybe a handout or two and/or a DM screen and basically never stop to look anything up in the rulebook while playing full RAW. And yes, this does reward prep.</li> </ul>And yes, a big part of the second half is the character sheets and statblocks should contain all the rules for things like spells so we don't need to stop the game to look them up in the PHB.To pick obvious examples:<ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Apocalypse World, Dungeon World, or other PBTA games fit very neatly here. There are definite non-obvious interactions and you need a couple of lookup sheets; they aren't rules light but it's almost impossible to call them rules heavy.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Marvel Heroic Roleplaying likewise. It's far too fiddly to be rules light, but character sheets are designed to fit on single sides of A5. (Its successor game in the Sentinels Comics RPG likewise)</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">AD&D 1e is in no way rules medium. How many rules are there in the 1e DMG for odd things like helmets?</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">D&D 4e is at the heavy end of rules medium. Those monster statblocks and DMG p42 cover a lot and all the rules are on the character sheets/in the power cards.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">D&D 5e is annoyingly close to rules medium. It clearly isn't rules light. As for rules heavy, too much time is spent looking up spells, both because the players don't take copies and because the monsters with spells have pointers to other rulebooks (which is something that they've shown changing in the future).</li> </ul>And what are the stakes? As mentioned, this is me advocating for a level of game design I consider good. Not much to look up but some mechanical heft and emergent complexity.</blockquote>

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