Which system?!? |
Here’s an interesting question which, for many people, will be something that we don’t think about much.
For most of my gaming life it’s always been something like this:
- “What kind of game do we fancy running?” – by which we mean genre, like fantasy or SF.
- “What kind of adventures do we fancy playing?” – by which we narrow the genre.
- “Which game do we like to run?” – by which we take the genre-fitting games and pick a fav.
- “Ok, which part of the setting shall we explore?” – by which time the GM is reading the relevant book.
- “What character do you wanna play?” – ’nuff said.
Turning the Questions Around
Allow me to give an example:
“What sort of setting would you like to run?”
“Erm, a kind of modern or near-future setting in which technology and magic are being blended. Maybe a kind of cyberpunk-meets-technocracy-meets-spies-in-Japan groove.”
“That sounds cool. Which system would you use?”
“Dunno… let me just lookie here online for ideas.” (Hours pass researching systems, to little avail, as the idea is so specific to my head that nothing fits).
“I guess we have to think about adapting a system, which sounds like lots of work… do you really want to play that setting?”
What’s the Problem?
No Fetters Is Limiting?
Work on the Setting
- Which timeframe, location and basic genre are you working with?
- What makes this setting unique and worth playing?
- What style of play: story or sandbox?
- What are the top five elements that you want to include in the setting?
- Why would your players want to play?