Play Group Size
Like a lot of my fellow hobbyists, I can be quite introverted. The last 10 years of my role playing has been with a very large group. There is a circle of around a dozen of us that come and go. On a busy, but not unusual game night we can have a GM plus 8 players! The great thing here is that everyone involved is cool, and it's nice to have a sizable group of friends. Another decent thing is that while I can go pretty introverted in social situations, I'm usually able to be quite outgoing as a roleplayer. Still, my ideal social group size is, like, 1 to 3 people besides myself. In roleplaying, my ideal group size is GM plus 3 or 4 players. I think for most roleplayers, this is what you'd call a pretty standard sized group, but these days, personally, I call a group this size "small" and I love it.
Moments
I've expressed similar sentiments in previous years' #RPGaDays, but scale is best realized in contrast. The big battle vs. the evil dictator and his global empire contrasted by a humble meal with a gal you enjoy the company of in your run down apartment complex. Small moments can have big impacts. When everything is blasting at 11 non-stop, you get numb to the scope and intensity of the situation. Loud moments contrasted by quiet moments, large scale conflicts contrasted by local personal sized conflicts, winning and sometimes losing. It is the change of scale, the differing contours of situations, experiencing a thing as well as its opposite that all adds texture to the roleplaying experience. Small moments in an RPG can keep things grounded, keep things from flying away to some kind of flat power fantasy.
Rule Books
Oh man! I like a small rule book! Now, compared to some, maybe it could be said I like a medium sized rule book, but I think you should be able to get a full blown RPG done in 180 pages or less. Heck, 128 pages is a nice size. Some absolute classics get it done in 64! The core rules of many RPGs can be explained in two to five pages, then fleshing out, elaborating or providing options beyond that. What I want an RPG's text to do is clearly and concisely convey how the rules work, while also keeping me excited to play. An RPG text with heavy background and setting material, or extensive fiction tends to drag me down. Other aspects that drag me down in an RPG are the creation and use of a lot of setting or game specific jargon. Rule books need to earn their page counts, and some are providing more good times per page than others. There are plenty of RPGs I've seen that have pretty great production values, pretty books, but just a lot of fluff. As a writer, I have bad habits galore, but if I ever get around to writing up my own RPG, you'd better believe I'll do my best to make it as small as it can be while also fulfilling its purpose.
Sorry, this was not my most inspired #RPGaDay post, but we're working though 31 of 'em here, and quality will vary! I hope you're enjoying the posts overall, and I'm able to provide some good material as we work through the rest of the month.
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