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Message: <blockquote data-quote="SableWyvern" data-source="post: 9772371" data-attributes="member: 1008">I can only speak for myself, but the way I approach, assess and use RPGs is completely and utterly different to the way I approach and assess computer games. I use them in entirely different ways, to achieve entirely different ends.I don't think I'm especially unusual in this, and when things move between media -- stage, page, big screen, small screen, console/PC, RPG, comic, etc -- I fully expect that decisions are going to have to made about what things need to carry across and how to go about it presenting them in this new medium. Further, I expect that different people are likely to have very different ideas about how to best go about that.Even a sequel in the same medium, while it is likely to be much easier to predict how it will feel, can sometimes diverge significantly.I think a Tomb Raider RPG could be approached in a whole host of ways, and the idea that there is  one specific set of appropriate expectations is completely alien to the way I look at RPG (or, as mentioned, moving between media in general). If I decide I want to run a Tomb Raider game, I'll make my own assessment as to what I want, and then see what best fits my needs. What I absolutely won't do is assume that just because a Tomb Raider game exists, it will work for me or match the experience I want in a Tomb Raider RPG.I do not want to reopen conservatism in gaming again, but the whole "success with a complication" as a central feature is one obvious thing to me. The mechanics are explicitly telling you, "the game needs to move forward and something interesting must happen at this point."At a more basic level, the philosophy that "nothing much happens; the status quo is maintained" is an unacceptable outcome -- instead, any interaction with the mechanics must happen in such a way that doing so moves the game forward somehow.I could also see a situation where the results of mechanical interactions modify a metacurrency, and when that metacurrency is at certain levels various things happen that push the character to action, or to make tough decisions or whatever.I'm not going to be great at giving a more detailed answer, as it's not my sort of gaming, but on numerous occasions I've seen [USER=42582]@pemerton[/USER] describe what he likes about mechanics driving play, and provided examples.Certainly not, it just seems to me to be the most prevalent and consistent thing that's coming up.The participants drive play via the decisions they make. They use the mechanisms as required to resolve uncertainty, and then make more decisions based on the outcomes. The key difference being that the game mechanics themselves aren't intentionally being built to generate complications, challenges, dilemmas, demand action or what-have-you.In a traditional game about political intrigue and fear of betrayal, the players make decisions, the rules held provide outcomes, and everyone is just expected to play along with the premise. The rules themselves don't generate intrigue and fear of betrayal, they just assess what happens in an environment where those things exist.In a modern game, the mechanics might directly say, "you now need to make a hard choice: do you remain loyal, at a cost to yourself, or betray your patron in this matter?" Again, I'm not greatly positioned to elaborate on how all these mechanics might work, but my feeling is they would be designed specifically to create intrigue and fear of betrayal.Note that, the participants' decisions actually drive play in both situations -- I'm not saying this responsibility is completely offloaded to the mechanics. It would be slightly more accurate to say that in the modern version, the mechanics mandate that play is always driven in the direction of the theme, instead of leaving it up to the players to ensure that happens.And, for the third or fourth time, I will again point out that I'm no expert on these design principles, so don't expect my specific examples to necessarily be spot on.</blockquote>

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