Advice for Designers : comments [benlehman]

I am, perhaps not surprisingly, of the opinion that a good system is far more useful than that. Particularly, I don't consider "GM fiat without numbers" to be a particularly good system.

Have you are Vincent's Blog (http://www.lumpley.com/opine.html)? He has a whole series of recent articles, starting here (http://www.lumpley.com/anycomment.php?entry=138) which go into the hows, whys, and wherefores of system. There is an index of all these posts on the frontpage of his blog right now.

If you are bothering to read the poop that I write, you might as well read the good stuff.

yrs--
--Ben

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I don't consider "GM fiat without numbers" to be a particularly good system.

Yes, but it can still make for a great game.

UtterDark v2, for example ('96-'98), had no system at all. But I dare you to find a player who has bad things to say about that game. Even Treska, who got blown up.

...OK, so maybe they're all too scared to say anything bad about that game. But still. :)

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UtterDark was doubleplus all good. There was no bad thing in UtterDark. There are no bad men. They don't tell me what to say. Go to the happy place. The happy, happy UtterDark. All good. Yes.

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...splendid.

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Not saying that that sort of fiatted freeform can't make a good game. What I will say is that a good system will make a better game, every time.

yrs--
--Ben

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But the system is just a tool of the Man designed to give us the illusion of non-deterministic events!

It's all pre-ordained, dude. Free the dice, and your mind will follow.

/trippy

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benlehman

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