Post B2jmgaKvVJqaR8dpsu by crabsoft@gamerstavern.online
 (DIR) More posts by crabsoft@gamerstavern.online
 (DIR) Post #B2jmgXkL8NOQP5Vaa0 by mrundkvist@archaeo.social
       2026-01-27T08:14:36Z
       
       0 likes, 1 repeats
       
       Often when I read complicated RPG rules I think to myself, "There is no way that this is actually playable at the gaming table. This is aspirational rules design. People will just forget to use most of this, because there's nothing that triggers an RPG rule beyond what people remember."#ttrpg
       
 (DIR) Post #B2jmgYlnKS9PZtCGUC by crabsoft@gamerstavern.online
       2026-01-27T08:40:07Z
       
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       @mrundkvist I've certainly come to the point that mechanics have to be justified. I've got a simple system that I consider to be rules-minimal. So, if you're going to add a rule, it better model and enable something awesome, that isn't possible with less.
       
 (DIR) Post #B2jmgZZQLvqk3oPtqK by mrundkvist@archaeo.social
       2026-01-27T09:02:26Z
       
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       @crabsoft Unworkable rules are often the result of simulationist over-ambition. But the combat system in Swords of the Serpentine manages to be both unworkable AND non-simulationist.It's a 2008 rules-lite system that by 2022 had mutated into a hideous bush of exceptions and odd links to the game's skill system, all because the designer wanted to insert hard-coded narrative opportunities into combat. Also unintended exploits...#ttrpg
       
 (DIR) Post #B2jmgaKvVJqaR8dpsu by crabsoft@gamerstavern.online
       2026-01-27T09:09:43Z
       
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       @mrundkvist "Simulation" is code for "lazy". Game design is all about making abstractions both satisfying and fun. Calling it simulation is just refusing to do the work.
       
 (DIR) Post #B2jmgbEw94eNEqqZBg by mrundkvist@archaeo.social
       2026-01-27T09:21:14Z
       
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       @crabsoft Or it's a yearning to do another kind of work than functional RPG design. Akin to coding a physics engine for video games.
       
 (DIR) Post #B2jmgbzNMPnTYsZeZU by lextenebris@social.vivaldi.net
       2026-01-28T08:04:26Z
       
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       @mrundkvist @crabsoft It really depends on what the system pretends to be simulating. Most of the heavy rules crunch RPG design is attempting to be a physics engine, which is a fool's errand.Trying to simulate physics with a high-speed computational platform is hard enough that there are specialized several hundred thousand lines of code designed for a machine that can think a lot faster than a human being to do. That still falls short.It doesn't matter how many pages fit in the book, you're not going to simulate physics. Yet, they keep trying.But there are other things to simulate. Some mechanical systems attempt to simulate the structure of stories via mechanical aids, and those can actually be quite small because when you're talking about fictive narrative space, the rules can be relatively abstract. The interpretation engine is the human brain, and we're used to telling stories to one another.Rules-minimal systems tend to be narrativist because narrative rules are simpler to express.
       
 (DIR) Post #B2jmgeweN0OojIK1Eu by mrundkvist@archaeo.social
       2026-01-27T08:17:40Z
       
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       A computer can't avoid executing programme code. But an RPG group has endless opportunity to either forget or wilfully ignore code that's too complicated or doesn't work well.