Rules Light

   I read this on Twitter. Someone said, “Fuck narrativist and rules light.”

   At first I thought it was just plain stupid. Then, I thought about it some more. Why in the world would anyone prefer to have more rules? “Rules heavy” feel like snail mail. I am forty-seven years old, and I don’t want to sound overly dramatic here, but I have probably lived way more than 50% of my life; I’m sorry, but I neither have the time nor the energy to flick through the pages of four books to look up charts and tables and modifiers and argue about special nighttime mounted engagement rule number 284-G. But – apparently – lots of people my age still avoid rules light. Why is that? Masochism?

   Most men are what you might call hardware buffs: we love our building blocks, and it is how we interact with the world around us. Whenever my dad or my uncles are anxious or stressed, they build (or repair) something.

   In the microcosm that is gaming, “building blocks” translate into rules, while the rest translates into lore. Crunch or fluff, aye. But the word fluff in itself is slightly pejorative.

   “Fuck narrativist and rules light.”

   Seriously?

   Role-playing games began as rules light, and narration had a prevalent place in it. Alas, to quote Mike Mornard’s review of Dave Arneson’s True Genius, “mechanics have won” over the years. Modern gamers love their mechanics. Look at Gloomhaven’s tremendous success. And yes, I enjoy playing it, but Gloomhaven is 99% crunch. And let’s not forget that good, steady mechanics enable organized play: you couldn’t have the Adventurers League with just a 56-page booklet. It would quickly devolve into the Arguing League.

   The late ‘80s saw the advent of rules-heavy games. The new trend was realism. Think HârnMaster here. HârnMaster was remarkably painful, in my humble opinion. I seem to remember writing down the words “grievous cut” several dozen times on my 5 or 6 or 7 consecutive character record sheets. That’s the memory I have associated with Hârn. I kid you not. The flow of that game was impeded every two minutes by the GM looking up some chart or matrix or table of armor or listing of critical wounds or diseases or fumbles... I have dermatitis and gingivitis and migraines and joint pain in real life; I really DON’T need infections or muscle tears when I try to escape into a fantasy world! Gimme a break, Doc, will ya?

   If this were The Voice or something like American Ninja Warrior, the crunch would be the performances, scores and / or judges input, while the fluff would be those short bios shown right before every contestant’s performance.

   I love Ichabod Ferndweller, and I love Viari. I don’t know what level they are, or how many hit points they have – and I don’t really care. I do not love Eldar Phantom Titan number two, even though Eldar Phantom Titan number two single-handedly destroyed over fifty units of Dark Vengeance Chaos Cultists. Who cares? You like someone for their “fluff,” not for their crunch. Capt’n Crunch is the only exception I can think of.

   I checked out one streamed game of Gloomhaven and didn’t even watch for an hour. It is super boring. Who wants to see four guys manage their 10 cards and select the lowest possible initiative count so that the Tinkerer is given ample time to heal the Cragheart before the Archers attack. Picture that for a solid three hours. Pure crunch is un-streamable because it is almost unwatchable.

   I no longer bring the books with me on Game Day. I prep the game using the books (at home), and then the books remain at home. I only need my cue cards – but I can tell you an entire story with just your roll of a d20.

   You needed 15 to hit, but rolled a 14? It doesn’t mean you slashed wide and completely missed. Your blade might have ricocheted off the rim of your opponent’s buckler and then violently scraped against the left side of his or her helm, throwing up dazzling sparks, but not causing him or her any real bodily damage – but it was very close indeed.

   Narrativist is easy; you just need to be a little flexible and a little forthcoming. You can do it.

   Long live narrativist and rules light.