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What is a "Light" RPG? What is a "Crunchy" RPG?
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<blockquote data-quote="aramis erak" data-source="post: 9427121" data-attributes="member: 6779310"><p>The wording of the question, to me, is a false opposition, conflating two different axises of the experience...</p><p></p><p>Light: rules are simple and/or fast to resolve</p><p>heavy: rules are complex and/or take significant resolution time</p><p>Crunchy: rules are used a lot and drive the story situation</p><p>Smooth: rules are used either little, or are not overly intrusive against the flow of play.</p><p></p><p>One of the crunchiest games I've run is also rules light: <em><u>Blood and Honor</u></em>. Since anything that affects a character sheet goes to resolution, and more than half of play wound up being using the rather simple conflict system... I'd put it at about 3/5 of the sessions were spent in resolution... but that resolution also directly resulted in story beats, and were largely driving play... I'm not counting the 1/10 of sessions spent waiting on certain players to work through analysis paralysis. So, only 3/10 of session time was spent in actual non-mechanically driven narration. The entire game's rules can be reduced to about 3 letter pages of readably large text (12pt) outlines/flowcharts, including the (predefined) aspects.</p><p></p><p>Likewise, despite the plethora of tables, <em><u>Rolemaster</u></em>'s pretty smooth in play. The tables are straightforward in use. outside combat, only two get much use: <em>Moving Maneuver</em> and <em>Static Maneuver</em>. In combat, if one's well organized, it runs fast and easy... part of that is putting the needed weapon tables for PCs in player hands so the GM isn't looking them up. This also encourages similarity of armament for foes. Character gen, tho'... oy.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="aramis erak, post: 9427121, member: 6779310"] The wording of the question, to me, is a false opposition, conflating two different axises of the experience... Light: rules are simple and/or fast to resolve heavy: rules are complex and/or take significant resolution time Crunchy: rules are used a lot and drive the story situation Smooth: rules are used either little, or are not overly intrusive against the flow of play. One of the crunchiest games I've run is also rules light: [I][U]Blood and Honor[/U][/I]. Since anything that affects a character sheet goes to resolution, and more than half of play wound up being using the rather simple conflict system... I'd put it at about 3/5 of the sessions were spent in resolution... but that resolution also directly resulted in story beats, and were largely driving play... I'm not counting the 1/10 of sessions spent waiting on certain players to work through analysis paralysis. So, only 3/10 of session time was spent in actual non-mechanically driven narration. The entire game's rules can be reduced to about 3 letter pages of readably large text (12pt) outlines/flowcharts, including the (predefined) aspects. Likewise, despite the plethora of tables, [I][U]Rolemaster[/U][/I]'s pretty smooth in play. The tables are straightforward in use. outside combat, only two get much use: [I]Moving Maneuver[/I] and [I]Static Maneuver[/I]. In combat, if one's well organized, it runs fast and easy... part of that is putting the needed weapon tables for PCs in player hands so the GM isn't looking them up. This also encourages similarity of armament for foes. Character gen, tho'... oy. [/QUOTE]
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