But still! No one else is geeking out about the potential? guh.
Howdy Fire! As far as players that detest mixed genres, I
am one of "those guys," so let me share some of my thoughts on "the potential."
My single biggest objection to playing such a game is, well... Gamers. They are a lot with diverse tastes and varying levels of maturity, and most of the ones that I know wouldn't agree on any point of contention within this setting. Think of it as another version of "we can't have nice things." here's why.
If one character is a relatively "normal" human sorcerer, another is an elven jedi knight, another is a klingon gunslinger from a wild west setting, and another is a radiation-mutated vampire hunter from a post-apocalyse world, we've got some serious issues with what those players
expect and
want from the game. The first basic question to address is why the hell this group would've gotten together in the first place, much less go on adventures together. You've got to come up with something to get this party together, and it has to be
very good to come across as something more than a contrivance. Or you could just hand-wave the cross-genre issues (as many games of this type have done, as far as my experience with them goes), which is just as dissatisfying. There are already plenty of problems with getting players to work together, even when it's an explicitly stated expectation of the setting/genre or the group's preferred style of play. How many orc barbarians threaten violence against fellow player characters, or halfling rogues merrily steal from their fellow party members while the players smugly retort that they are "just playing the character?" That sort of thing will be intensely magnified as you include more and more options.
And that's just the first session.
Have you ever seen a nerdfight around a gaming table? I don't mean a discussion/argument over the spirit versus the letter of a rule, or a quibble over a bit of lore established in canon published game products versus a semi-canon novel from the 80's. One of those things where people argue "cool" as a point of merit?
Should a katana be able to cut through a tank?
Of course! Katanas are cool, and that's exactly the sort of thing that happens in anime, video games, and comic books all the time!
If the rules say it can. If it's not expressly listed as an option, you can't do that.
The GM should roll the dice for everything instead of setting firm expectations of genre or setting hard limits about what can happen in his game. He's probably going to be passive/aggressive about it and tell the player that he can do it, but needs to roll some insanely high number to pull it off.
Of course not! They're just swords. I'd be glad to go get one of my katanas for you and let you see how much sheet metal you can punch it through.
Can you imagine the sheer scope of running a game where the standards for character creation include multiple points of "cool?" Just imagining someone bringing in a mage from Monte Cook's World of Darkness and arguing its points with someone playing a spellcaster under the Pathfinder rules makes my head hurt. That's not a game that I'm interested in playing.
At a certain point, I'd ask myself why I'm playing this game instead of doing something slightly less obnoxious, like just about anything else that has a recreational purpose. Fortunately, I've had enough experience with various games over the years to know quite firmly where my lines are on these sorts of things.
I also wouldn't like the idea of having to effectively playtest a brand-new system while were in the middle of learning it. Although most d20 games are relatively compatible (at least on the most basic levels), there are just far too many variables to account for before playing. Can a jedi use a lightsaber to deflect a
scorching ray? Can a western-era gunsmith craft UV-enhanced bullets to affect vampires like sunlight? Does a mage have to make sanity checks for encountering a Deep One that they summon? I'm just not interested in that level of crossover discussion over so many points, especially since the vast majority will likely boil down to GM fiat.
I've harped on quite a bit about this particular point... But all these things boil down to making a player's choices matter less. If the GM handwaves or makes on-the-spot calls about too many things, it doesn't matter what my character does. I'm just there to roll the dice.
At a certain point, I ask myself, "What the hell is this game
about?" If the answer takes more than a sentence or two to explain to someone, it's too complicated.
