Thursday, July 17

What is a gaming system?

When does one system end and another begin! Where does the system end and the fluff begin? Does system matter? What is the purpose of the system? A number of threads on rpg.net lately has raised a number of questions for me. Basically it all comes down to the role and effect of the rules system in an rpg. I will start this little series with a small example, if it can be called that. Imagine that you have a game with a purely random character generation. No choices whatsoever, or at least a very limited amount of choices. Now, consider these two options:

1 - you roll up your character with dice, one roll at a time and write
down the result

2 - you use a computer to generate all the rolls and calculations for
you. A click on a button and a second later you have got a finished
character.

Now, which of these characters will you have the strongest connection
to?

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