It's clear to me that in any practical sense I play and design RPGs rather differently than... well just about everybody. This is due to how I approach the subject and isn't that hard to define, but its still worth a post making it a bit detailing it a bit.
The concept arises out of three core beliefs.
- I think realism is a definable and achievable goal in game design. That puts me at odds with most people in the modern gaming scene who feel completely differently- often for the simple reason that they'd feel that admitting such a thing would lessen the games they play themselves (because they almost without exception have serious flaws with respect to realism).
- I think simulation of genre is desirable and also achievable by a mix of game mechanics and what could be called meta-mechanics (more commonly called play style). This puts me at odds with everyone who identifies as Simulationist be it Threefold, GNS, or the more individual definitions I've encountered online.
- I believe this combination allows one to create (or recreate) their own fantasy or sci-fi epics, basically on par with modern film and literature themes, plots, and events (perhaps more a sad comment of the state of modern film and literature than a comment about how great the gaming style is)- and thus serves many of the more common 'story' goals people have expressed in the past.
In total it is in short a middle of the road style that uses sophisticated and rather complex rules to reach a perfect mix of realism, genre and story without stressing one to the point that the others break. This style was born in the 70s and remained common in the 80s although most attempts at game design for it was a failure (mostly of scaling).
It has however nearly completely faded from the scene over the last couple of decades for reasons that are IMO mostly cultural and irreversible. But I still design and play according to it, and have settled on the label 'Genre Simulation RPG' to describe it.
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4 comments:
I don't think it has faded. Marvel Heroic Roleplaying was about emulating the comics, and Spectrum Games prides itself on genera emulation.
Not only do I agree with the above, I think they are *provably true* (with some exception as there may be definitions of the terms that someone might come up with that are different than how I read it--but still reasonable).
I want to especially call out play-style. An inexperienced GM (or even an experienced one on an off-day) can set up a situation that the they and the group find a poor experience (for example: having the major bad-guy appear at the very start of play--and the PCs racing to attack ... and then defeating him--as a common example).
I think one of the major points of skill at being a game master in this mode is attention to the construction of the initial situation in such a way as not to fall apart (in a bad way) on contact with characters. Usually, in my experience, this means letting go of preconceived notions of how the PCs will behave and having a good mastery of the rules of the game.
I need examples, I played most if the games available in the 80s, arduin, psi world, gamma world, paranoia, etc... Are those the the types of games your talking about? Because those were fun but hugely flawed.
Blast from the past Rich.
As I noted in my original post, most attempts at this type of game design were in fact a failure. However I should note that none of they ones you listed were of this type.
The most successful genre sim 80s system (or from any era if we're talking widely published rpgs)was Champions and when played by people who understood the rules, their effects, and the genre would hit on all cylinders rather nicely with only minor house rules.
When Hero Games attempted other genres besides Superheroes, it struggled not because it couldn't do it- but only because the default setting values they used in character and item construction were poorly selected. I think a desire to simulation D&D was sadly their goal. A misplaced one.
Beside Champions, we're looking at failed attempts. RuneQuest (an early 70s design) is the best of these (but it scales horribly).
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