The Endless Search for a Game System

Saw this article over on the the RPG Blog II. I respond there, but thought I'd put my reaction with just a bit of expansion here as well.

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I agree and disagree.

I agree in that once you find a system that matches your needs- just stay with it.

I agree in that if you don't find a system that matches yours needs- create your own, in whole or as house ruled modification. Then just stay with it.

A different system is only required if the needs change. Most often some changes in your existing choice can meet those new needs just fine. I haven't changed game systems in 30 years save for version updates.

I disagree however that this is possible for most people. That's because they keep picking poor systems, but they never realize it. Dissatisfaction  builds, and off they going looking for a new game.

Wasn't as bad as I feared

Only took me the weekend to redo the layout after Lulu changed their paper size and requirements. Went from 138 pages to 155 due to the change. Oh joy.

At least now I'm back to doing new stuff. Got the disease rules in. Progress once more.

And a Good Swift Kick in the Backside from Lulu

Well, this is something of a disaster.

Was trucking along and doing rather well on getting my homegrown rules together and the layout done so I can order myself a bound copy. Decided to review all my various options, candy store like you know...

...seems the template I download so long ago for letter sized books is out of date. Changed margins and all, and not in a good way. They want larger ones now. Worse, you can't get letter-size in hardback anymore (could one ever? maybe I didn't read it right back in the day). Nope, you're stuck with something smaller overall.

So the whole layout is blown. Have to redo it all. A number of the tables will have to be rebuilt with few columns. Sets me back about a month I think. Just about on the edge of giving up on it, thinking it's no longer worth the effort. Never really was truth be told, hell of a time sink just to avoid using binders.

It's really all my fault. I should have finished this back when I started it.

Sigh.

Are we too whipped to call a shovel a shovel?

Sigh.

The phrase used to be 'call a spade a spade', back when spade meant a type of shovel and before we were trained to be hypersensitive to... well everything. The old days weren't perfect, but today is if anything heading towards something worse.

This here is a case in point. This is a typical example of someone who can't bring himself to label the art in Lamentations of the Flame Princess the vile and disgusting trash that it is. Instead he has to celebrate the pushing of boundaries. The publishing of a horrid and repulsive thing in our hobby is seen as a chance to display not one's moral and artistic standards- but how open minded one is.

So here we are. A world where we basically remove an old and harmless saying from usage due to fears of racism, but we celebrate graphic art showing a woman being ripped apart from her vagina out...

Gives a whole new layer to the phrase "you've come a long way baby" doesn't it?

And I find that there are days when I hate this hobby, or rather what is becoming the face of it.

The Good and Bad of Published Settings

Did a lot of work on the rules for the new campaign over the last week. Things are starting to come together and we even rolled up characters Sunday. We'll likely be able to start play this weekend, although the work on the rules will continue in order to make the materials at least approaching complete.

While doing this, and the research that goes into it, I encountered some old friends. The advantages and disadvantages of using settings created by other people.

One big advantage is that it's easier to hook people by showing them the source material. With that comes understanding of what the feel of the campaign is going to be.

The big disadvantage is that you don't own that material, and the people who do will without exception screw it up badly.

Using the Claymore anime as the background for this campaign has proved that disadvantage once more. I was able to bypass some rather uncomfortable things in the anime and ignored some stupid things (the sidekick) easily enough. Keep all the really good stuff and was ready to go.

Then in my research I came across the Manga. Not nearly as easy to ignore some of the stuff in that. Oh it has good parts too. But I can see why plans to do a second anime season based on it were dropped.

That brings be back to another advantage of basing campaigns on published material. You can change things and do them better.