Game Crafting
This will be the first in a series of blog posts about my theories and strategies for creating Pen and Paper rule sets.
Any nerd who has tried table top gaming has at one point talked to another gamer, posted on a message board, or asked the dork at the local hobby shop something about RPG's, and got a heaping pile of opinions. What system is the best, why this or that system sucks, the whole gamut. I will start with a little history, in the 70's Those old dudes who play flight simulators and Age of Empire 3 on Microsoft Zone today were busy with miniatures, reenacting, with pewter, the great battles in history. This turned into a game when someone had the obvious idea that his bunch of pewter figurines would totally beat the shit out of that one guy's figurines, after all, his has a cannon, and that guy just has cavalry...
“Not pictured, neglected wives or the dudes they're fucking”
Two dudes who were playing Chainmail eventually stopped and went “why all the big battles? What if we just had one soldier... and he fought dragons and shit?” Out of that most awesome epiphany birthed the table top role playing game.
The original game system was very basic, the beginning concepts of Table Top gaming were just being explored, Character Creation, Classes, levels, all of which were brand-spanking-new to the whole bunch of dudes who to all this was really novel. The pen and paper role playing game really appealed to college students and their little brothers, and before you knew it, all those misanthropic pocket protector nerds had their own little clubs, their own place to be the knight in shining armor, the debonair trickster or the bad ass Conan in a loin-cloth. It is in this haze of reminiscence that we often confuse the original system for the best, it was basic, a thin layer of monster and loot rules over large scale miniature combat system.
“The best abstinence program in existence.”
As the editions have progressed so has the system detail. When before all actions were arbitrarily determined by the Game Master, now the systems are moving more towards computational precision. 3rd edition brought about the idea that concepts used in computer games could be applied to pen and paper games as a way to increase customization and streamline the rules. Unfortunately with 3rd edition it was more like a large spreadsheet then a streamlined rule system, but none the less the mechanics of the system were solid. Most actions are determined by rolling 1 dice to measure success of failure and the other dice were used to measure the extent of either outcome.
Pic kinda related...
So what is wrong with arbitrary rule-sets? They are not fair, no matter how good a GM is, his job should be setting the pace, determining difficulty and playing the NPC's. He shouldn't have to stop to thumb through 10 different books when an action brings about discussions of physics, rule-sets, or stupid articles in bi-annual periodicals.
The next blog will have me talking about 4th edition, an overview, with a measured look at strength and weaknesses.
-Ri
