I have a lot of TTRPG rules. For handling ease, I have tried to keep them in three camps, D100 style for the bulk, Savage Worlds and “other”, so that they are able to support different play styles and tastes, but also to aide in the learning of all of these rules. This is often done in a relative vacuum (little opportunity to play-which reinforces knowledge, or lack there of) and the problem is…..well……I get distracted.
Not by other media, not by life or work, not even by other TTRPG’s. I get distracted by my desire to do stuff my way, to reinvent, tinker and experiment. This has always been me and it really stifles actual gaming. Start reading a book, get an idea, start writing a book, get bogged down and repeat.
I have a set of WW2 wargame rules that I started in the early 2000’s, that may never be finished, even though the ideas are well enough cemented that I could probably write many of them from memory.
D100 games are another example.
I never intended to run RQ RAW, just mine the resources and simplify play using BRP or similar. Maybe I will give it a crack. It’s not like they have not laid down a clear and pleasant path.
I have so many of them and they all have great content, but the mechanics are often dated in application. This is getting better as games evolve, but still, almost as soon as I start reading one, I become aware of better ideas than those posed. Better? Well to my mind better.
The reality is, most d100 mechanics are easily enough hacked, the flexibility of the d100 roll-under based system blesses us with that, so I could easily enough write a one sheet variant to apply to basically all d100 games.
The latest version of Call of Cthulhu is pretty clean and slick. It is modernised while sticking to it’s roots and pretty bullet proof. I still struggle with the core mechanic, even though it works and many others are fine with it.
The problem, and I know this from my transition from amateur photographer to professional, is that actually doing something for real tends to quieten the demons, while doing it “theoretically’ as an anticipation of the real thing, tends to make little things bigger than they need to be.
I used to sweat lens play, mount tightness, colour of lenses matching in sets, those sets making sense. I now just grab the gear that will do a job and short of a drop or other issues, just put it back on the shelf to use again. I have lenses that are loose, some that grind, the odd one that is loose on the mount, cameras with damage and some little quirks, even a couple well past their shutter life rating, but as long as they work, they get used. I recently packed four bags of kit for a long and busy day, all without duplication and still had gear left over. Nothing is wasted.
I remember the example often used of the two art classes given the same task, make a perfect pot. One can only work in theory until the pot is made at the end of the process, the other class is allowed to make and make pots until time runs out. The makers always beat the theorists in final product.
I need to stop being a theorist. I need to be a maker. I need to play these games “RAW” and only house rule when I am sure of my facts and it is for the better-for real.