this post was submitted on 22 Nov 2023
9 points (90.9% liked)
rpg
3299 readers
12 users here now
This community is for meaningful discussions of tabletop/pen & paper RPGs
Rules (wip):
- Do not distribute pirate content
- Do not incite arguments/flamewars/gatekeeping.
- Do not submit video game content unless the game is based on a tabletop RPG property and is newsworthy.
- Image and video links MUST be TTRPG related and should be shared as self posts/text with context or discussion unless they fall under our specific case rules.
- Do not submit posts looking for players, groups or games.
- Do not advertise for livestreams
- Limit Self-promotions. Active members may promote their own content once per week. Crowdfunding posts are limited to one announcement and one reminder across all users.
- Comment respectfully. Refrain from personal attacks and discriminatory (racist, homophobic, transphobic, etc.) comments. Comments deemed abusive may be removed by moderators.
- No Zak S content.
- Off-Topic: Book trade, Boardgames, wargames, video games are generally off-topic.
founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
I don't really get this obsession for "system" that some of the community has.
A system is there to support a lore, to take a cliché example, if you want character being normal human dealing with cosmic horror D&D is a bad choice, but if you want zero to hero campaign with character having Dragonball like power where they can destroy a whole planet with their fist, Call of Cthulhu won't be a proper choice. Then the GM can really turns a good game into a bad campaign and the other way around.
With the amount of "PTBA" games (with all quality level) it's hard to make any general statement, Iron sworn, Monster of the week, and kult are very different games concept.
A thing that disapoint me is that PTBA is seen as "rule light" when it's actually pretty heavy rule wise. You need to give player helpsheet with moves, check table to see the consequence, definitely the opposite of rule light. It's not necessarily a bad thing and playing by the rules is cool, but if you want simple rules where player would get the principle is 5 minutes it's not the right choice.
I really love pbta games but I would agree with you that they are not rule light so much as "rule lighter than d&d"
there's lots of one page systems out there that are truly rules light.
that said once you know the rules I would say that it provides a system that is easy to plan for, it's easy to play in, and it flows very naturally.
I ran dungeon world and monster of the week campaigns for years, playing probably 3 to 4 hours once a week on average most of that time.
I think I did maybe 2 hours a month of prep? something about like that.
I loved how pbta games would allow me to basically spend all of my prep time coming up with cool ideas and not having to worry too much about the mechanics because I either had a framework too accomplish them already or I could just make it up on the spot.
some of my group's favorite moments in our campaign have come from me just making things up on the spot and them being able to react to it.
when I used to DM for d&d or Pathfinder those kind of moments would take hours of prep work.
I would say the obsession is more people finding something that has freed them from the heavy rule set rather than something that is truly rules light.