Menu
News
All News
Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
Pathfinder
Starfinder
Warhammer
2d20 System
Year Zero Engine
Industry News
Reviews
Dragon Reflections
Columns
Weekly Digests
Weekly News Digest
Freebies, Sales & Bundles
RPG Print News
RPG Crowdfunding News
Game Content
ENterplanetary DimENsions
Mythological Figures
Opinion
Worlds of Design
Peregrine's Next
RPG Evolution
Other Columns
From the Freelancing Frontline
Monster ENcyclopedia
WotC/TSR Alumni Look Back
4 Hours w/RSD (Ryan Dancey)
The Road to 3E (Jonathan Tweet)
Greenwood's Realms (Ed Greenwood)
Drawmij's TSR (Jim Ward)
Community
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Resources
Wiki
Pages
Latest activity
Media
New media
New comments
Search media
Downloads
Latest reviews
Search resources
EN Publishing
Store
EN5ider
Adventures in ZEITGEIST
Awfully Cheerful Engine
What's OLD is NEW
Judge Dredd & The Worlds Of 2000AD
War of the Burning Sky
Level Up: Advanced 5E
Events & Releases
Upcoming Events
Private Events
Featured Events
Socials!
Twitch
YouTube
Facebook (EN Publishing)
Facebook (EN World)
Twitter
Instagram
TikTok
Podcast
Features
Top 5 RPGs Compiled Charts 2004-Present
Adventure Game Industry Market Research Summary (RPGs) V1.0
Ryan Dancey: Acquiring TSR
Q&A With Gary Gygax
D&D Rules FAQs
TSR, WotC, & Paizo: A Comparative History
D&D Pronunciation Guide
Million Dollar TTRPG Kickstarters
Tabletop RPG Podcast Hall of Fame
Eric Noah's Unofficial D&D 3rd Edition News
D&D in the Mainstream
D&D & RPG History
About Morrus
Log in
Register
What's new
Search
Search
Search titles only
By:
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Menu
Log in
Register
Install the app
Install
The
VOIDRUNNER'S CODEX
is coming! Explore new worlds, fight oppressive empires, fend off fearsome aliens, and wield deadly psionics with this comprehensive boxed set expansion for 5E and A5E!
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*TTRPGs General
A neotrad TTRPG design manifesto
JavaScript is disabled. For a better experience, please enable JavaScript in your browser before proceeding.
You are using an out of date browser. It may not display this or other websites correctly.
You should upgrade or use an
alternative browser
.
Reply to thread
Message
<blockquote data-quote="pemerton" data-source="post: 9247323" data-attributes="member: 42582"><p>Suppose that someone is doing what you describe - being a knight, or a vampire.</p><p></p><p>What does it add to that experience to have the game tell you to track encumbrance? Or to have a rule for the chance to find secret doors if you search for them. Or to have combat rules appropriate to a miniatures wargame? Nothing. The adapation of "indie" innovations gets rid of this cruft, and aligns the rules better with the sorts of player-side "prompts" that make sense for the game. This is <a href="https://www.arkenstonepublishing.net/isabout/2020/05/14/observations-on-gns-simulationism/" target="_blank">Eero Tuovinent's point</a> about how Hickman</p><p></p><p style="margin-left: 20px">push[ed] the AD&D content delivery chassis to its extreme ends and beyond in an effort to deliver a true high fantasy epic via a game structurally very poorly suited for the purpose.</p><p></p><p>Hickman's project would be <em>improved</em> by having a "content delivery chassis" that is better suited to his purpose, that is, better suited to "deliver[ing] a true high fantasy epic", because it conforms to <a href="https://imbrattabit.wordpress.com/2019/12/09/what-does-it-take-to-be-a-neotrad-role-playing-game/" target="_blank">these points</a>:</p><ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul"><strong>Chekhov’s gun</strong>. “If you have a pistol, then it should be fired” it means that mechanics should not appear just to give unlikely options or false promises. Once a rule has been designed, there should be a fair probability that it comes into play in every session. In this way, players can be sure that everything they learned is useful and the GM has not to memorize useless rules. This is also true for the character sheet, it should report only skills or traits that are effectively used by players.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul"><strong>Bounded bookkeeping</strong>. Limited use of tables (from critics to equipment), long lists or other means that require browsing the handbook too often. This saves time and keeps the players’ attention alive.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul"><strong>Wide GM Support</strong>. Like Modern RPGs, neotrad don’t underestimate the GM job and give her all the means to manage the rules (with a fair number of samples) as well as the players at the table. Also, rarely a neotrad game uses the battle grid, relying more on abstract “zones” and other means to manage the fictional positioning.</li> </ul><p>And of course, these better-suited rules would make "rule zero" unnecessary.</p><p></p><p>I don't think it has to be any more complicated or mysterious than this.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="pemerton, post: 9247323, member: 42582"] Suppose that someone is doing what you describe - being a knight, or a vampire. What does it add to that experience to have the game tell you to track encumbrance? Or to have a rule for the chance to find secret doors if you search for them. Or to have combat rules appropriate to a miniatures wargame? Nothing. The adapation of "indie" innovations gets rid of this cruft, and aligns the rules better with the sorts of player-side "prompts" that make sense for the game. This is [URL='https://www.arkenstonepublishing.net/isabout/2020/05/14/observations-on-gns-simulationism/']Eero Tuovinent's point[/URL] about how Hickman [INDENT]push[ed] the AD&D content delivery chassis to its extreme ends and beyond in an effort to deliver a true high fantasy epic via a game structurally very poorly suited for the purpose.[/INDENT] Hickman's project would be [I]improved[/I] by having a "content delivery chassis" that is better suited to his purpose, that is, better suited to "deliver[ing] a true high fantasy epic", because it conforms to [URL='https://imbrattabit.wordpress.com/2019/12/09/what-does-it-take-to-be-a-neotrad-role-playing-game/']these points[/URL]: [LIST] [*][B]Chekhov’s gun[/B]. “If you have a pistol, then it should be fired” it means that mechanics should not appear just to give unlikely options or false promises. Once a rule has been designed, there should be a fair probability that it comes into play in every session. In this way, players can be sure that everything they learned is useful and the GM has not to memorize useless rules. This is also true for the character sheet, it should report only skills or traits that are effectively used by players. [*][B]Bounded bookkeeping[/B]. Limited use of tables (from critics to equipment), long lists or other means that require browsing the handbook too often. This saves time and keeps the players’ attention alive. [*][B]Wide GM Support[/B]. Like Modern RPGs, neotrad don’t underestimate the GM job and give her all the means to manage the rules (with a fair number of samples) as well as the players at the table. Also, rarely a neotrad game uses the battle grid, relying more on abstract “zones” and other means to manage the fictional positioning. [/LIST] And of course, these better-suited rules would make "rule zero" unnecessary. I don't think it has to be any more complicated or mysterious than this. [/QUOTE]
Insert quotes…
Verification
Post reply
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*TTRPGs General
A neotrad TTRPG design manifesto
Top