The shelves of a modern game store carry a staggering number of roleplaying systems, and I have only tried a mere smattering. But what I have learned is this: the systems we use have a strong effect on the stories we tell at the table.
A Bit About Me
I have been playing editions of Dungeons & Dragons since 1981 (using the blue boxed set) and for decades, it was the only role-playing system that I knew about: D&D was roleplaying. But after college, I wanted to tell different kinds of stories than the now "standard" heroic fantasy. I imagined campaigns in an Iron Age Celtic setting, or in Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time series, or even stranger or futuristic environments. D&D seemed to have too many systems and rules that were highly specialized for a pseudo-medieval, Western-European-centric fantasy setting. Also, as a class-based system, it funneled characters into prescribed role and archetypes that sometimes didn't match the world I was imaging. It was a chore to modify the ruleset enough to give the right feel that I wanted without a near-complete rewrite of the Player's Handbook.
Enter GURPS by Steve Jackson Games. GURPS stands for Generic Universal Role Playing Systems, and it was my first introduction to a modular RPG system that had a set of core rules that covers nearly every setting or time period imaginable. After that, setting books would give specific world information, customized rules if needed, and player options that fit. Also, GURPS is a classless system that allows players to build characters in nearly any way they could imagine. I played GURPS for a long time, running campaigns ranging from Wheel of Time to Napoleonic spies to a Matrix-style hop through a myriad of different worlds and settings. Later on, I found GURPS a bit too fussy (ever see the Table of Cubic Thirds in GURPS Vehicles to help you design the interior volume?) and moved to Deadlands, a brief stint with Vampire: The Masquerade, Savage Worlds (a system I really love), and of course 3rd, 3.5, 4th, and now 5th Editions of D&D.
The Next Story I Want to Tell
If you've read my last post, you'll know that I'm looking to run a campaign set in the weird underground world of Veins of the Earth. The two campaign ideas are very different, but they both revolve around exploration of alien landscapes and creatures, scarcity of resources, and feelings of imminent mortal danger from the unknown. Also, my players are all very experienced (most are DMs themselves) so I also want to challenge them on a player level by creating a play environment that demands creativity and out-of-the-box thinking for character survival.
Our current game is 5th Edition D&D--and that's what my group is most comfortable playing--but 5E has a few baked-in features that are a problem for the feel of my proposed campaign(s):
Exploration
D&D purports to be built around the 3 Pillars of Combat, Social Interaction, and Exploration, but its rules tell a different story: tons of rules for combat, only a few social skills for interaction, and very little for exploration beyond travel times and wandering monster tables, which don't provide PCs any meaningful choices to make and reduce travel to a daily dice roll. Additionally, class features like the ranger's Natural Explorer remove getting lost as a story option, and certain feats like Keen Mind hard-code a sense of direction in a character.
Scarcity of Resources
D&D 5E is a game about superheroes, and superheroes don't sweat the small stuff. 5th Edition has nearly hand-waved things like rations (low-level clerics simply create food and water), light sources (nearly every spellcasting class has light as a cantrip, warlocks can choose to see 120' through even magical darkness, and just about every race but human possesses darkvision or low-light vision), and encumbrance (the allowed weights are objectively ridiculous, and the rules even say you can carry whatever you want except for unusual circumstances, and even allows DMs to ignore the entire rule. Many groups also don't even track things like ammunition or rope, etc.
Imminent Mortal Danger
The feeling of danger in an rpg usually stems from one of two sources: 1) fear of the unknown, or 2) knowledge that one faces a dangerous foe while down to one's last hit points/wounds/vitality/health. In 5E, the "unknown" is lessened in many ways. My players are often very familiar with the monsters they face (again, many are DMs themselves), and so automatically know the best tactics to defeat them. Also, in dungeons, light and darkness is a non-issue (see Scarcity, above) and so that tool of terror is off the table. When it comes to hit points, by mid-levels PC have so many hp and such easy access to instant healing magic that a combat doesn't worry them for many rounds...and even if they are knocked to zero they have every expectation of their fellows curing them right away and getting back in the fight.
So What Will I Do?
I am looking into a different system for my next game. I'm exploring a few systems of the OSR (Old School Revival) style, which seem to offer many of the features I want. The frontrunners right now are Five Torches Deep and Lamentation of the Flame Princess. I doubt I'll be using either system "off the rack" and I'll keep the blog updated with my decision and subsequent modifications. Cheers!
For Further Reading
Comments
Post a Comment