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Message: <blockquote data-quote="pemerton" data-source="post: 7787724" data-attributes="member: 42582">I'm not 100% sure what "freeform" means in this thread; and I've never played Fate.The "lightest" system I've ever played is <a href="http://catchyourhare.com/files/Cthulhu%20Dark.pdf" target="_blank">Cthulhu Dark</a>. PC gen is choose a name and an occupation for your PC and then give a description. "Occupation" here doesn't mean character class but means job. We've had a stevedore, a couple of investigative reporters, a legal secretary, and a butler.Resolution involves rolling a pool of d6s (1 to 3, depending on whether the attempted action is humanly possible, is one that your job helps with, and/or you are risking your sanity to succeed). The basic rule is "your highest die shows how well you do. On a 1, you barely succeed. On a 6, you do brilliantly." There is also a rule for introducing the possibility of failure in virtue of an opposed check.There are no aspects and no clocks (there is an escalating sanity die, but it's not a clock in the resolution context, only in the scenario failure context), but I find it works pretty well. As a GM I apply some fairly simple principles from other systems: intent and task action declaration; no retries. The fiction unfolds pretty quickly and fairly unpredictably. The main function of success and failure is to change the fiction, not to introduce mechanical burdens or constraints on subsequent checks.Compared to this system, I wouldn't see 5e as being very freeform. Nor 4e, but the latter does have some of the rationing devices you point to ("clocks", in the form of skill challenges; resources to spend in the context of resolution like encounter or daily powers and action points and healing surges) which mean that actions can be framed and then resolved purely procedurally without having to make calls about what the difficulty should be, whether the outcome is balanced with a spell or magic item, etc. I assume it's these sorts of features which [USER=82504]@Garthanos[/USER] has in mind in saying that 4e is better than 5e for freeform.</blockquote>

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