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Message: <blockquote data-quote="HywelPhillips" data-source="post: 8210674" data-attributes="member: 7029826">I think the separation of setting and mechanics is a gross oversimplification for RPG's.No RPG can be played without a setting (unlike abstract boardgames). In an RPG you are inhabiting a world with your characters. The setting mechanics are modelling the physics of that world. Every mechanical decision you make shapes the world the characters inhabit and the experience of the players. If you've got a magic system, there can be magic in the world. No magic system in the rules? Then the default for games set in that world is no magic. That's a huge difference. Furthermore, the setting and particularly the sample adventure are vital tools for showing the GM who buys the game at least one viable way the system and world are meant to interact in play. The Keep on the Borderlands was AT LEAST as responsible for shaping the first play experience of millions of people as were the basic D&D rules. As Blue says above, the best games foster a play style where the physics of the mechanics supports the physics and story structures of the world. RuneQuest plus Cults of Prax is a very different beast from D&D with "pick a god, here's a paragraph and a couple of extra spells, off you go". If you want a pulpy story where heroes get captured by bad guys all the time, a combat system where knockouts are easy and dying is hard will do a much better job than a gritty system which models concussions, shock, blood loss and broken bones. Sure, you CAN run a mega-powered superhero game with the Jane Austin roleplaying game rules. But I submit that you'd have more fun running it with a purpose-built system. Even generic games like SWADE or HERO or GURPS recognise the need for setting-specific options, feats/edges/powers... all sorts of rules. Rules which foster the sort of story the game needs to tell. And still they mostly play like and feel like SWADE or HERO or GURPS.For sure there is a difference between detailed setting and genre. You don't need to provide 200 pages of world history in the rulebook information; I'd say it is more valuable to have a discussion of what sort of worlds you can run in the system. But I think you need to be alert to what sorts of worlds your system is intended to support, and an example setting and adventure is a good way to do it, not least because it gives the new GM a huge leg-up on running that first session for their friends.</blockquote>

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