Reply to thread

Message

<blockquote data-quote="innerdude" data-source="post: 8436927" data-attributes="member: 85870">The only thing that would cause me to &quot;hate&quot; an RPG is if the system wholly fails to accomplish what the mechanics plus the descriptive text say it should accomplish.The only two systems I've tried that would fall into that camp would be GURPS and Fate Core, and even then I think my experiences (and group participants) color my opinions more than games themselves. My biggest problem with GURPS is that every group I've played it with has gone completely against the system's strengths. Rather than trying to play grounded, semi-realistic games/settings, they instead want to amp up the action into mini-superhero territory---including with generic fantasy.They don't want to play grounded fantasy. They want to play 350-point starting characters, who can completely counter-act GURPS' baseline lethality.This impulse of the groups I've played it with further exacerbates my biggest problem with GURPS, which is the complexity of combat resolution. There's just so many things that I dislike about how combat resolves that add absolutely nothing to the &quot;fun&quot; factor of why I play RPGs. Playing with 350-point demi-god fantasy heroes only makes the overwhelming number of combat options worse.With Fate, it's more a question of, I don't really know where it &quot;fits&quot; in terms of my game style. I've discovered through experience that I'm very comfortable with PbtA / FitD style games, and totally &quot;grok&quot; what they're trying to do. With Ironsworn, I found that I could completely divest myself from the &quot;trad&quot; mindset and really go where the mechanics were trying to take me.But I can't really find that spot with Fate. It's clearly not supposed to be a &quot;trad&quot; game . . . though devoid of Aspects / Compels, the system itself looks a lot like a pretty &quot;trad&quot; style of game. I get the feeling that Fate is supposed to produce &quot;high drama&quot; / &quot;high stakes&quot; kinds of action, but in play it never really reached that for me.Plus, in terms of &quot;narrative&quot; style systems, it's still a bit more mechanically complex than I would expect it to be, especially since the gameplay it produced was always a bit bland. In spite of the complexity, it lacked the narrative &quot;heft&quot; of PbtA / FitD, while also lacking the enjoyable tactical gamism of PF/3.x or Savage Worlds.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="innerdude, post: 8436927, member: 85870"] The only thing that would cause me to "hate" an RPG is if the system wholly fails to accomplish what the mechanics plus the descriptive text say it should accomplish. The only two systems I've tried that would fall into that camp would be GURPS and Fate Core, and even then I think my experiences (and group participants) color my opinions more than games themselves. My biggest problem with GURPS is that every group I've played it with has gone completely against the system's strengths. Rather than trying to play grounded, semi-realistic games/settings, they instead want to amp up the action into mini-superhero territory---including with generic fantasy. They don't want to play grounded fantasy. They want to play 350-point starting characters, who can completely counter-act GURPS' baseline lethality. This impulse of the groups I've played it with further exacerbates my biggest problem with GURPS, which is the complexity of combat resolution. There's just so many things that I dislike about how combat resolves that add absolutely nothing to the "fun" factor of why I play RPGs. Playing with 350-point demi-god fantasy heroes only makes the overwhelming number of combat options worse. With Fate, it's more a question of, I don't really know where it "fits" in terms of my game style. I've discovered through experience that I'm very comfortable with PbtA / FitD style games, and totally "grok" what they're trying to do. With Ironsworn, I found that I could completely divest myself from the "trad" mindset and really go where the mechanics were trying to take me. But I can't really find that spot with Fate. It's clearly not supposed to be a "trad" game . . . though devoid of Aspects / Compels, the system itself looks a lot like a pretty "trad" style of game. I get the feeling that Fate is supposed to produce "high drama" / "high stakes" kinds of action, but in play it never really reached that for me. Plus, in terms of "narrative" style systems, it's still a bit more mechanically complex than I would expect it to be, especially since the gameplay it produced was always a bit bland. In spite of the complexity, it lacked the narrative "heft" of PbtA / FitD, while also lacking the enjoyable tactical gamism of PF/3.x or Savage Worlds. [/QUOTE]

Verification