Re: Ho Much Rule fiddling Is Tolerable?

From: Robin Laws Mail List Only <tjaderoo_at_gkPxpbr71jPImuoM4NIFuJE1r4SN5xcIge8TblJV0w80ggY3jIg-GdxamLthJdQE0At>
Date: Wed, 18 Jul 2007 20:19:36 -0400

> I disagree with this approach. People (many more than "some") have been
> playing "low level" Gloranthan characters for 30 years, and saying: "what
> you've been doing is wrong" is a bad idea. I'd rather see an approach where
> you choose three (or so) points on the spectrum and show how to create
> characters of that level

Like you, I am in favor of giving people options, and opposed to telling them that their
favored option is wrong.

At the same time, when you take the decision to fiddle with rules, the number one consideration when looking at any rule, "Why is this fun?" If one of your first responses is, "We've been doing it this way for 30 years," two possibilities pertain:

1. It isn't actually fun. We're just doing it because we've always done it that way.
2. Actually, it is fun, for reason X.

If your answer is 1, you figure out what would be fun and do that instead.

If it's 2, you ask yourself how the rule can best serve reason X. Maybe the existing rule does the trick, or succeeds well enough that it isn't worth putting people through a new learning curve. Or maybe there's a simpler, clearer way of doing it that fosters the desired emotional experience even more strongly. In that case, you go with the new way.

The process of challenging assumptions is always valuable, whether it gives you a new respect for the assumption, or causes you to set it aside.

If the 30-year Glorantha hands who dig stickpicker/cattle herder series see a book that starts out with the heroic protagonist option, and has the stickpicker rules in the back, they know the drill and can take care of themselves. They can flip to that section right away, see which of the new changes they want to incorporate into their games, and investigate out the heroic options at their leisure.

For potential GMs and players new to Glorantha, the clear, straightforward fun of heroic play is way more accessible and immediately appealing. Get them playing in the world and having fun. The incipient stickpickers among them will eventually find their own way to that more complicated chapter later on in the book.