Personally, I think system isn't very important. It's fantasy. Stuff happens. It's not necessarily realistic. Nobody cares. GM fudges where necessary.
Totally crap systems can make for a fun game, so long as the purpose is fun, just like a B-grade movie can be fun, so long as the purpose isn't the study of cinematic excellence.
However, more importantly, the whole question is irrelevant to me and I can't see why there are flame wars over it. I'm much more into board gaming these days, so let me shift to a similar situation in that realm: You get together with some people and split into two groups. Group A just picks up a game from the pile and plays it, while Group B spends 40 mins discussing which game is best and then finally picks one and plays that. You appear to be the Group B type, arguing that the system is terribly important. You are arguing against some people who appear to be the Group A type, who claim that it's best to just play and enjoy. But so what? There is no right and wrong there.
System doesn't matter much
Date: 2007-01-11 09:15 am (UTC)Totally crap systems can make for a fun game, so long as the purpose is fun, just like a B-grade movie can be fun, so long as the purpose isn't the study of cinematic excellence.
However, more importantly, the whole question is irrelevant to me and I can't see why there are flame wars over it. I'm much more into board gaming these days, so let me shift to a similar situation in that realm: You get together with some people and split into two groups. Group A just picks up a game from the pile and plays it, while Group B spends 40 mins discussing which game is best and then finally picks one and plays that. You appear to be the Group B type, arguing that the system is terribly important. You are arguing against some people who appear to be the Group A type, who claim that it's best to just play and enjoy. But so what? There is no right and wrong there.