One of the responses I received on my last blog entry was the claim that one of the things that doom 'heavy' systems for older and/or more busy gamers is the game prep they require.
Now, I'm a older more busy gamer with limited time. And somehow this isn't a issue for me. Why would that be?
Perhaps I'm smarter, faster, better looking and frankly more than a step above the common gamer at everything. But while that is likely true, I don't consider it the primary reason. Rather I think the primary reason is the same as always- anyone who doesn't really know their game system will suffer horrid inefficiencies both in running them and preparing to run them. Those who do know their chosen game systems well, won't.
I suppose first we need to define game prep.
Back at the dawn of the hobby it was extensive mapped dungeon complexes or other adventuring areas with backgrounds on dozens or more of NPCs- friend and foe. Call it World/Setting Creation and doing that sort of thing is certainly a major time sink...
...except that it would be time sink no matter what the game system if what you want is a completely mapped world with backgrounds on all the NPCs. Very few of the popular heavy systems (HERO, GURPS, D&D 4E) do this sort of thing for you- at least with the core books that make up said heavy system. World creation is world creation and if you want to skip it, you can skip it no matter what game rules you're using. If you do it, you do it again no matter the system.
There's the creation of adventures of course. This may take time although a pure sandbox skips this step completely. However once again, few of the common heavy rule systems offer more than advice in this area. A campaign against the dark elves of New York remains a campaign against the dark elves of New York if it's done in HERO or in FATE.
So three major components of game preparation- Setting and Background, detail maps, and adventure creation aren't really impacted by game systems. And that's nearly everything except actually playing.
The one detail left is the mechanical NPC write-up. Determining game stats and abilities for those NPCs (or things in some cases) that require them. Certainly this must take up a huge amount of time for heavy systems?
Not for those who understand their system.
Let's take an example from my own campaign, from a session ran a couple of weeks ago. I want many consider a highly complex game system- HERO for this campaign. I knew that the players would (after choosing a certain path) come across a high tech security android assigned the task of guarding the area the players were seeking access into. I didn't want this to be a stand up fight, so...
1. The android would attack after or during an encounter with mutant ruin rats.
2. It would be neat of the android looked like a corpse, it would appear that a dead man just stood up and started to kill them.
3. Hmm, dead looking android. I could steal much of the design from Terminator there.
HERO is very detailed when you're interested in adding up all the points and balancing the creation to a budget. But points aren't game balance no matter what anyone says. What matters in this encounter is it's weapon, it's OCV and DCV, BODY and defenses. I've ran this system for years and decided upon those values in less than a minute. I tossed in some enhance senses and skills that might be important (PER, combat levels, etc) for another maybe another minute of thought. Nothing needed to hit paper, nothing needed to be pointed out.
Same process with the ruin rats (already done some time back, so I already had these).And I was ready to go.
Prep Time: About 20 minutes in total split up through the week thinking about what adventure I was going to run Sunday. The result was tightly fought and close battle that had the desire effect (i.e. scaring the players) and then some.
I can rather easily run such things off the top of my head with no prep- because I understand the system and its game balance. Later I spent about three hours actually writing up the T-800 just to have a copy of it because I enjoy that sort of thing. And it makes it easier for players who don't have a firm grasp of the rules if they should want to run something. But that's above and beyond just running the game.
Add in published write ups for NPCs/creatures (HERO has lots, although I don't care for their construction methods they can still be a base for something)- and really, I don't have any prep time.
I can do these before I've been running HERO since it was first published in the 80s. The editions are close enough that any work I've done before can be applied to something done today. I have a huge resource at my call.
And that wouldn't be possible if I was changing game systems every few months like most bloggers seem to do.
So if prep time is a problem for you- it's your own fault. Caused either by your own non-mechanical related demands, or a failure to stick with something long enough to know it well enough. You're just wanting to pass the blame to the game system.
What about people new to the hobby who don't have decades of experience to make this possible? It's called work, you get out what you put in. If you don't have time to learn a heavy system, then you don't have the time. You have to do what you have to do.
But don't claim it isn't possible for others. Your limits do not define mine- or the hobby itself for that matter.
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10 comments:
I haven’t often heard of people running GURPS or Rolemaster or HERO or many of the other heavier systems complain about prep-time. It seems to most often be a complaint about D&D 3e.
I’ve long suspected there are two things at work here.
(1) D&D 3e gave a lot of people the impression that stating out a monster or NPC should be done via rule systems. Sort of like building a starship in Traveller. I’ve talked to people who feel they have to “show their work” rather than just picking stats that they think make sense.
(2) A lot of 3e advocates I have conversed with like the system because it “takes the DM out of the equation”. (In the designers’ own words.) They don’t trust DMs. They will challenge anything that isn’t done strictly by-the-book.
In my own group, we have never been big on playing strictly by-the-book, and 3e prep time hasn’t really been an issue when we play it. So, I wonder how widespread this is beyond some squeaky wheels.
I think the two factors you note do have a impact, both are self-caused however.
With respect to D&D 3E specifically, I never got in it beyond buying the core three books to see where the game had gone. I've heard the same said about D&D 4E but have dug even less into it.
The CR mechanic would seem to apply a prep time burden for anything that wasn't already given (i.e. if you had to determine it instead of just look it up).
Even so, I can't see it being that big of a deal for someone who does it a lot. Driving a car is a very difficult task until you learn it- then it's brain dead. This applies to most game systems.
Mostly playing devil's advocate here -- Doesn't the time required to acquire and maintain system mastery count as "prep time?" It's not per-session prep, but it's still a time-investment that doesn't exist for lighter systems.
You make a number of really good points, regarding about mechanical mastery, and you are correct. If you have gamed a system for 20 years, with near sole devotion, I would suspect you could create nearly any mechanical NPC/Monster, etc on the fly.
For me my problem is that, I don't want to devote myself to one system, Lite or Complex. I like to learn new rules. I like seeing how designers come up with new mechanics. I like playing different systems, settings etc.
For that, I accept that I will not be able to divine the perfect stats off the top of my head, but I do not think it would be a weakness of a system to aid me in NPC/Encounter creation. I am willing to take a bit longer in learning for the chance to experience different systems.
That said, as an adult, I don't whine about not enough time for prep, I plan for it. I have not, in my 20+ years as a gamer, waved off on a game night for not being prepared. I make the time in my life to get my gaming done.
For new players, I agree that you have to work to get your game prepped each week, and more so when you are new to the system. Though, I would not advocate only playing one game for your career. I have found that I have learned quite a lot from experiencing different game systems over the years, and I am happy to have worked longer writing my notes, than not to have experienced those systems.
But points aren't game balance no matter what anyone says. What matters in this encounter is it's weapon, it's OCV and DCV, BODY and defenses. I've ran this system for years and decided upon those values in less than a minute. I tossed in some enhance senses and skills that might be important (PER, combat levels, etc) for another maybe another minute of thought.
Nail, meet Hammer.
I lost enough marks for failing to show my work in High School. There's no reason whatever to bring that to the game! I "stat them as I see them" without regard to system.
Flipsidewise, other GMs might want to hew to the RAW as well as play as fair as possible with the other players - I won't fault that and for a big bulky system that's a big bulky job.
Odyssey, your observation is doubletrue. Nice.
Robert Fisher's post hits on it, I think. I never found game prep a problem until 3E. Near the end of my experience with trying to run that game I ditched a lot of the stated rules for creating things and just used stats that were appropriate. Arguably, it worked, but it also made me realize there was no point to using 3E if I was going to ignore all the rules and do it the way I did under earlier editions.
Oddysey: Yes, there is a non-repeated upfront time investment. But it's not 'Game Prep' as term is normally applied.
My last two paragraphs of the article address this. If you can't take time to learn the rules- you can't take time to learn the rules.
Personally I take that as reason to move to another hobby rather than a gutted version of this one. YMMV.
Rainswept: I'd like to add that I am using the RAW, HERO System doesn't define any point budget for NPCs nor even a method.
All the abilities are legal and per the rules. I just don't take time to apply the costing detail in my Prep.
Anonymous: I'm not big on defending D&D in any of its versions so I can't really address your statement directly.
I will say however that ignoring or house-ruling the section on creating characters isn't the same as ignoring all the rules. I imagine one would sitll be able to use most of the books.
Then again, the way D&D uses feats and the like it's almost gaming by creation exception in the first place... so maybe you're right.
"If you don't have enough time then you should move on."
No offense, brother - I love the blog - but we'll have to part ways here. You obviously prefer more complex systems. Cool. Keep playin 'em and rock on.
I've been there; I've done that - I, personally, have more fun with rules-lite systems. I don't play these games for the crunch; I play 'em to hang out with my buddies and have fun. And I don't think more complex systems do a better job providing me with that experience. But that's just me. Game on.
I pretty much agree with you Gleichman, both on the idea that Rules Lite games aren't "the future" and that the prep problem with "rules heavy" games is pretty easy to mitigate. There are online tools and programs out there designed just to save you time on these things, and there is a huge market of canned NPCs and canned adventures for every game.
I do think a huge part of it is the culture of mistrust toward the GM though. The culture makes it so a GM can't take shortcuts unless the game encourages them (like for example Dark Heresy, a game I'm playing now, creatures in it are basically the 9 basic characteristics, some random talents you pick without looking at the prerequisites and their guns). I use your approach all the time in pretty much every game I play – if the creature's only there to be fought, I don't need anything but those values. But a lot of players seem entitled to dissect your campaign for perfect rules compliance.
Personally I take that as reason to move to another hobby rather than a gutted version of this one. YMMV.
I kind of have, actually. I call what I do 3+ nights a week "D&D," but I suspect you'd categorize it as an entirely different species of beast from your HERO games.
And a lot of this does come down to bizarre player expectations. (And bad DMing.) Complex systems in general and 3e/4e D&D in particular offer this experience of character build and system mastery to players, which is somewhat at odds to the things that those systems offer to DMs. But lighter/more ruling driven systems have similar issues in different areas. Social problems are at the core of most of the hobby's issues.
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