Hard vs Soft Worldbuilding

I found this great YouTube channeling that does deep dives into worldbuilding. The YouTube video on Soft Wordbuilding is HERE.

I'll have to whip up a post about RPG implications at some point when time permits.

Levels of Abstraction, Complication, & Versimilitude in RPG Rules

So, you're making an RPG and need rules, or else re-evaluating an old RPG that doesn't suit your needs. You've got your numeric skeleton, your narrative flesh, and somehow you've got to sew them together with silver threads of reality.

(NB: This is for old school games. I understand that 'story games' often compose the corpus in a different way)

There are a few ways to think about different levels of abstraction, their attendant complication, and the verisimilitude they engender.

Level 1 = Bitter reality

At this level, the rules are made to emulate the real world as faithfully as possible. D&D's meticulous calculation of weight coin by coin fits this, with Encumbrance as lbs of objects. This may be great for modern games, but as I've noted before, it is a mismatch for fantasy. How does an elf know how many kilograms something is? Also, counting the weight of coins is about as much fun as watching paint dry.

Abstraction - low

Complication - high

Verisimilitude  (to reality) - high / (to gameworld) medium

Fun - low

Level 2 = Inside A Simulation

At this level, the rules are made to emulate reality as it should exist within the game system.

For example, if Encumbrance is a number of items based on STR, and the size of the item modifies how many Encumbrance points are used. Daggers are 1 ENC, short swords 2, long 3, and greatswords 4, to give rough examples. Takes some getting used to, but by excising real world units the integrity of the game world is preserved, at the expense of learning the new system of measurement.

Abstraction - medium

Complication - medium

Verisimilitude 1 (to the game) - high

Fun - medium

Level 3 = World-Based Reality

At this level, the rules are made to reflect the reality of the game world. In D&D, wizards cannot wear armor. Why? Because it is a trope of that world.

Similarly, if we make Encumbrance as number of weapons and armor carriable according to class, then this buys into the world, but ignores mechanics such as STR. This is the site of conflict between story conventions and mechanics.

Abstraction - high

Complication - medium

Verisimilitude - low

Fun - medium

Level 4 = Pure Roleplaying, aka We Don't Need No Stinkin' Rules

At this level, players are expected to ROLEplay, and thus no rules are made. The old Stormbringer and Cthulhu went this way. Open to abuse unless GM and players are big fans of the genre / source material and police themselves accordingly.

Abstraction - high

Complication - low

Verisimilitude - medium

Fun - medium

Conclusions

From health to abilities, all aspects of an RPG can be seen this way. Add to the fact that different GMs and players want or expect different things, the choice becomes fraught with potential for division.

As for me, when RL abates and I can return to my project, Level 3 will be my aim. For an IP, world based reality is the goal.

On The Feel Of The Dice Part Two

(This is another ancient backlog I am pushing out)

The Dice Tube vs The Bag of Dice

The dice tube is held by the noob, the gal or guy getting into the hobby. The bag of dice marks you as half LARPer or true roleplayer, for it is your purse of sparkling treasures. The halfway point between the two is the Crown Royal bag, when the roll player is emerging from the chrysalid the only way they can - with the help of alcohol.

This is, of course, for fantasy roleplayers. Scifi or horror gamers are happy with the dice tube, as it relegates the dice to chance generators, and not fetishes or totems from an imaginary world.

3d6

The old stalwart of character generation, expounded for the magical Bell Curve it produces. On the plus side, you could swap characters between any number of old systems (D&D, GURPS, BRP, DC, etc) without missing a beat. Seems to be going the way of the dodo considering Call of Cthulhu just relegated it to the nether realms. Still, dear to the heart of many a grognard (who all cheat and use 4d6 drop the worst or 2d6+6 anyway...).

That said, rolling 3d6 vs skills TRYING to get a low result in GURPS always felt dirty, like using your mother's China to feed the dog. This is why many GURPS collections gathered dust while BRP came to the fore with its d100...

d100

Ostensibly the 'logical' choice for skills, since all real-world probability talk is done with percentages. The simple pass / fail dynamic quickly grew stale, and thus criticals & failures, normal and superior successes, etc etc all got tacked on. But the d100 remains the cold, hard stare of probability. Funnily enough, younger players have come to the table not knowing how to use them, a problem only compounded by online gaming. But other uses for the d10 soon came into vogue...

A Fistful of d10s

Vampire popularized the dice pool, which expanded everywhere a short few years before people grew tired of handfuls of dice and trying to add or match them all up. Small wonder that in the same year the late great Wujick published the Amber Diceless system. Speaking of...

Diceless

I played a game of Zombie Cinema and was refreshed to see story mechanics that put the choices and outcomes in player's hands, and was relieved to create a satisfying narrative together. Still, I think diceless requires an experience and integrity not all have, and so dice will never totally fade away. In fact, it seems to be going back to basics...

The New School D6

Mork Borg, Free League, and a ton of other avant garde games and designers have returned the lowly d6 to prominence. It is all you need for many new games, such as Lasers & Feelings, which hinges all action resolutions on opposing uses (roll high or low) of the d6. I guess the old Star Wars game was ahead of its time. Still, no one carries a d6 in a tube...