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Message: <blockquote data-quote="dbm" data-source="post: 9769184" data-attributes="member: 8014">I think this is really hard to nail down, however on reflection I think modern games are more intentional in design and leverage better understanding about how game mechanics promote certain aspects of play. Things like the rules for torches in Shadow Dark strike me as a clever mechanic to push a certain style of play.Similarly, clearing away the cruft which pulls away from the desired play experience is another indicator of modern design in my opinion. Some systems have rules for reasons of tradition but those rules either add nothing and just slow down play or sometimes even negatively impact the play experience; that’s archetypically not modern.That doesn’t mean modern games are all ‘narrative’. I certainly consider Draw Steel a modern system and it leans heavily ‘gamist’ in my opinion.So the rise of The Forge as a time when people really started digging in to game design and trying to understand it is probably as good a ‘year 0’ for modern game design as any. There were ‘intentional’ games before then, of course, but it became a much wider phenomenon after that site created a forum for discussion.</blockquote>