Mysteries and Plots
It is easy for mysteries and plots to feel simplistic when you're coming up with them, to feel like there should be more witty complications and twists that can be revealed in play. Most of the time simple does the job however, because players aren't hooked into what's happening to the same level of detail as they would be reading a novel. Individual players can be distracted during play, or maybe a player never quite has their character communicate some bit of information back to the rest of the party, and so mystery and plot details get lost. Likewise, players are pretty good at coming up with crazy theories or odd obsessions that fall far from a mystery or plot that's actually going on, and pursuing those theories for... a while! For these reasons, I think it's best to start from someplace simple with mysteries and plots, adding complications and twists as you get a feel for how much of what you're trying to lay down actually gets across to the players.
Characters
This applies to both PCs and NPCs, but especially NPCs. A single, or a couple really bold, easy to grasp characterizations or motivations are better than anything subtle, hidden, or complex almost always. With NPCs especially, they often are only "on stage" for a short amount of time, and so there may not be time for hidden depths to be revealed. Simplicity here is just a matter of what can be communicated. During game night there is cross-talk, people are considering divergent things, their own characters, and it's a noisy environment in some ways. Bold and simple comes across, it breaks through static and noise more reliably. Subtleties and sophistication can only get across when the static and noise is low, when everyone is tuned in. Yeah, it's a radio analogy. I'm not trying to say that subtle, sophisticated characters are bad, only that they are difficult to successfully play. I think the way to make more subtle or sophisticated characters work is for them to also have that simple, bold core, something people can easily grasp and you can have fun playing... but then when those quiet moments occur, you've got those more subtle aspects of the character in your back pocket and can bring a bit of it out. Sometimes it doesn't even get across to the whole party, but one or two people see what's happening and it's your own private thing.
Rules
Should a game's rules be simple? I think it's obvious to say they should be as simple as you can manage to make them, while also assuring that they do what you want them to do. When it comes to getting rules across to players and GMs, the 2 things that make this more difficult are 1.) Less simple rules, requiring more steps, more modifiers, more memorization, or require more decisions and calculating of odds before using. 2.) The rules are poorly explained or vague in their application, insufficient examples are given, a step by step procedure is not explicitly laid out, the author is just bad at explaining what their intent was, etc. So, you could have an RPG where the rules are, "When a character does something and the outcome is uncertain, flip a coin. On heads, the character succeeds, on tails the character fails" which is about as simple of rules as I can imagine outside of "The GM just decides what happens." For many RPG players, this would be too simple. Rules give a game texture and shape play. I think many of us have played games that feel too complex, crunchy or fiddly for our tastes as well.
When it comes to adding rules, the satisfaction they provide in play has to be balanced against the downside of their handling time and the overall increase in complexity they bring. Many times it is possible to come up with a rule outside of play and have it feel clever and elegant, but then in play it just rarely gets used or feels like a hassle. Some of this is because playtesting reveals things, but also, even a clever and elegant rule can be a bad rule if it is addressed to subjects the game is not about. For games that attempt to be about everything, by which I mean so-called Universal or Generic games (GURPS, Cortex Prime, EABA, etc.), I feel that they can suffer from this. To counteract this idea of creating rules to cover everything, many of these systems try to take a modular approach, which then requires a GM to pick and choose which options are available and communicate that to the players. This is not as simple as it could be, but... if everyone enjoys it, it is simple enough.
Conclusion
So, simplicity isn't just better on its own. The ideal game would flow like water and everyone would be able to get across what they are trying to get across, but there are factors that create friction and add noise, they slow down play and lead to misunderstandings. Simplicity is a tool that attempts to reduce the friction of play, lower the noise floor, or be easily perceivable through that noise. Simplicity isn't the only tool in the box for this. Players could study rules and be more attentive. Fewer players makes things easier. Being more competent at communication. Being well rested. Having good ears and eyes. Maybe I'm starting to sound silly now, but I think you get the idea.
Good luck playing the games you want to play!
No comments:
Post a Comment