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<blockquote data-quote="Dannyalcatraz" data-source="post: 8640358" data-attributes="member: 19675">The Fantasy Trip/In the Labyrinth showed me a system’s complexity is not intrinsically linked tho the enjoyability of the game.From RIFTS, I learned not to be too worried about “balance” as long as everyone is having fun.&nbsp; Never was in a game with Vagabonds &amp; Glitterboys in the same party, but people never griped about power disparities beca they were enjoying playing their characters their way. From Traveller and Central Casting, I discovered character history can be impactful for a character’s present and future.Champions/HERO showed me the joys of a flexible, point-based system.&nbsp; In particular, there’s usually more than one way to model a given character concept.&nbsp; While that’s particularly true of supers/toolbox systems, it’s applicable to most (not all) systems, and I’ve used it a lot in 3.5Ed D&amp;D.From MechWarrior, BESM, Prime Directive, Stormbringer/Hawkmoon/Corum&nbsp; and many others, I figured out that sometimes, a system designed from the ground up to support a certain playstyle will do a better job of delivering on that playstyle than simply running it in a syste that wasn’t.Mutants &amp; Masterminds illustrated that system CAN matter, and quite profoundly.&nbsp; I wanted to run an old campaign I had run in HERO with a new group, but nobody else wanted to play in HERO.&nbsp; So I figured M&amp;M was the next best thing, and on many levels, it was.&nbsp; However, certain dissimilarities to HERO manifested in D20 mechanics…that also differed from 3.5Ed mechanics the players vastly preferred.&nbsp; Those mechanical quirks were a substantial factor in the campaign’s failure.Playrests showed me no game is flawless; they’re all breakable.&nbsp; And THAT fact gave me a litmus test for my fellow players.&nbsp; I figured out I could game with casual gamers, veterans, and “optimizers”, but the players who routinely seek to exploit the fault lines in systems are no fun to game with beyond a one-shot.&nbsp; They’re not pleasant for me to game with long-term.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Dannyalcatraz, post: 8640358, member: 19675"] The Fantasy Trip/In the Labyrinth showed me a system’s complexity is not intrinsically linked tho the enjoyability of the game. From RIFTS, I learned not to be too worried about “balance” as long as everyone is having fun. Never was in a game with Vagabonds & Glitterboys in the same party, but people never griped about power disparities beca they were enjoying playing their characters their way. From Traveller and Central Casting, I discovered character history can be impactful for a character’s present and future. Champions/HERO showed me the joys of a flexible, point-based system. In particular, there’s usually more than one way to model a given character concept. While that’s particularly true of supers/toolbox systems, it’s applicable to most (not all) systems, and I’ve used it a lot in 3.5Ed D&D. From MechWarrior, BESM, Prime Directive, Stormbringer/Hawkmoon/Corum and many others, I figured out that sometimes, a system designed from the ground up to support a certain playstyle will do a better job of delivering on that playstyle than simply running it in a syste that wasn’t. Mutants & Masterminds illustrated that system CAN matter, and quite profoundly. I wanted to run an old campaign I had run in HERO with a new group, but nobody else wanted to play in HERO. So I figured M&M was the next best thing, and on many levels, it was. [I]However[/I], certain dissimilarities to HERO manifested in D20 mechanics…that also differed from 3.5Ed mechanics the players vastly preferred. Those mechanical quirks were a substantial factor in the campaign’s failure. Playrests showed me no game is flawless; they’re all breakable. And THAT fact gave me a litmus test for my fellow players. I figured out I could game with casual gamers, veterans, and “optimizers”, but the players who [I]routinely[/I] seek to exploit the fault lines in systems are no fun to game with beyond a one-shot. They’re not pleasant for me to game with long-term. [/QUOTE]

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