The Golden Age For Genre Emulation

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From my perspective, it seems that companies like to shoehorn properties into one house system, many times modified, instead of creating a new system from scratch that could better emulate that particular genre or property. The d20 era was saturated in this thinking. Why create a new system when d20 could do a serviceable job and they could ride Third Edition for sales? But in my mind, a game like Top Secret SI better emulates the spy genre than Spycraft does. A game like Marvel Super Heroes better emulates comic books than Mutants & Masterminds. I might be nostalgic, but I think the 1980s had a varied amount of systems that emulated the properties well and actually sold in stores. I am wrong? What do you think the golden age was for systems emulating the properties?
 
I agree with you that the 1980's was probably the Golden Age of Genre Emulation, but I'd also state that the D20 Boom era was a Silver Age of Genre Emulation.
 
From my perspective, it seems that companies like to shoehorn properties into one house system, many times modified, instead of creating a new system from scratch that could better emulate that particular genre or property. The d20 era was saturated in this thinking. Why create a new system when d20 could do a serviceable job and they could ride Third Edition for sales? But in my mind, a game like Top Secret SI better emulates the spy genre than Spycraft does. A game like Marvel Super Heroes better emulates comic books than Mutants & Masterminds. I might be nostalgic, but I think the 1980s had a varied amount of systems that emulated the properties well and actually sold in stores. I am wrong? What do you think the golden age was for systems emulating the properties?
I wholeheartedly agree. Gamma World, Star Frontiers, Top Secret, AD&D, and WEG's d6 Star Wars RPG had different mechanics than their successors -- and had a better feel for their genre because of it, in my opinion.
 
I feel like today there isn't as much of an attempt to be innovative in game design, and that when there is, it tends to be focused more on the "storygame" side of the hobby (which I'm not railing against, it just tends not to be what I look for). In the 80s there was an explosion of published systems, and part of that was jumping on the D&D fad, but it also was in part the exploration of a new (I hesitate to use the word "artform", maybe "gameform"?). I think we got that same explosion online in the early aughts, but it seemed to taper off.

Of course, my perceptions may be off, because I no longer buy or read new systems with the voracity I did when I was younger. I have my own house system that works very well for me, and when I indulge in another game system, its usually out of nostalgia (WFRP, Paranoia, etc).
 
One of my few gripes with Mutants & Masterminds is that characters get Power Points at the end of adventures that they can spend for advancement and only advancement. As most comic book fans know, characters rarely change, unless it's some short term power buff, they lose their powers, swap powers, etc. So you might start out with the default 150 PP build and end up with a 200 PP build after a year or two of campaign time. It breaks the genre immersion for me. It's one of reasons I still prop up DC Heroes and Marvel Super Heroes all these years later. They did it right where this is concerned.
 
Genre specific mechanics FTMFW.
Setting specific mechanics sure. Not sure about pure genre mechanics. Top Secret was better than 007 I think because you didn't have some kind of drama mechanic to invoke monologuing or whatever. But that's how I roll, I'm a "roleplay in the setting" type, not "roleplay in the actual literary structure" type.

I think what a lot of people consider "genre specific mechanics" I would classify as "setting specific mechanics".
 
While I agree, and I can get behind the idea of different systems for a game that better fits the genre. The familiarity of a system can also be an attraction. But it doesn't always work very well. A-la Palladium Megaversal, and D20.
 
Welcome to the Pub, Ronin!
 
"Aw shucks, do we really have to learn a new ruleset? I'm so beat after a day of work and keeping my kids in line and dealing with my taxes. Can't we just do this with a system we know?"

"Of course we do. What will people on the Internet think if we use D&D/Exalted/Savage Worlds/Fate for everything?" ;)

I'm a "roleplay in the setting" type, not "roleplay in the actual literary structure" type.

I think what a lot of people consider "genre specific mechanics" I would classify as "setting specific mechanics".

That is one thin line. Many, probably most RPG settings are very easily alotted inside a genre.
 
That is one thin line. Many, probably most RPG settings are very easily alotted inside a genre.
Just because they have a "genre", and have mechanics that are designed to facilitate the setting, doesn't mean that there are mechanics there to enforce or enable the tropes of the genre. Such mechanics are almost always player-facing, engaged with from an OOC point of view.
 
Take, for example, A Song of Ice and Fire. Coming up with specific combat mechanics for Braavosi Water Dancers, coming up with magic rules for the White Walkers, Red Priests, and Wargs, coming up with rules to run estates and Houses etc. are all setting-specific rules. A player being able to invoke "The Red Wedding Rule" and spend resources to engineer the killing of a rival is a "genre" rule reflecting not the setting as much as the conceit of the stories themselves in the novels, where nobles drop like flies.

That's a pretty clear line.
Or take a Sword and Sorcery setting. Including rules for corruption and insanity when using Sorcery are Setting specific rules. Including an "Ale and Whores Rule" where every time you start playing, players mark off a quarter of their money for the debauches they've done during downtime is a Genre specific rule.
 
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But isn't emulating the stories also emulating the genre?
 
But isn't emulating the stories also emulating the genre?
Emulating the literary tropes of the stories almost always is, making the setting verisimilar to the world described in the stories is not.
Rules detailing Elven senses to emulate the abilities demonstrated by Legolas is based on the stories, but is simply part of Middle-Earth, no different than coming up with stats for Giant Eagles.
Rules detailing the Power of Hope and Fellowship allowing a player to decide that his halfling PC can kick ass when faced with Nazgul and Shelob is emulating the stories directly, playing to genre.
 
That's a pretty clear line.

It is, if you pick and choose examples. ;) But once you've decided the game universe deviates from our own universe (in a fashion consistent with one or more preexisting fictional universes you're using as inspiration), and encoded these differences in rules, you're bound to pick up literary tropes along the worldbuilding.

Why do some games have more lethal combat than others?

Why do some games (mostly fantasy) use zero-to-hero characters, and others (particularly supers) have a steeper power curve?

Why do D&D starting characters are relative wimps while Traveller characters tend to be older, experienced and educated?

What exactly is CoC's Sanity system emulating?
 
It is, if you pick and choose examples. ;) But once you've decided the game universe deviates from our own universe (in a fashion consistent with one or more preexisting fictional universes you're using as inspiration), and encoded these differences in rules, you're bound to pick up literary tropes along the worldbuilding.
Not exactly, no. Let's look at your examples.

Why do some games have more lethal combat than others?
Seeking to more accurately emulate our reality more than anything. Any game that wants to keep PCs alive because in the genre, heros hardly ever die unless it's dramatically appropriate, will include ways for the player to save the PC, usually Luck, Fate, Drama, Hero, Benny Points of some kind.

Why do some games (mostly fantasy) use zero-to-hero characters, and others (particularly supers) have a steeper power curve?
Supers are something completely different from most other RPGs in that they're rules, even when emulating setting, try to emulate genre as well.

Why do D&D starting characters are relative wimps while Traveller characters tend to be older, experienced and educated?
If you look at most Appendix N titles, the heroes start out experienced, we find out their histories later, if at all. If anything, D&D going Zero to Hero is defying literary tropes as much as it follows mythic tropes like Campbell's Heroes' Journey. Of course sometimes Occam has his day, and the answer could be because that's how life works? Traveller allows for you to start as a 45 year old veteran, it also allows you to be fresh out of your first tour. You don't have to keep pushing the age up. People usually do because they want a damn ship, or JTAS membership, not because they're trying to emulate H Beam Piper or whoever.

What exactly is CoC's Sanity system emulating?
Sure insanity is all through the stories, but that's a setting conceit, no more a literary or genre trope than being able to sail West in Middle Earth and beach your ship on the shores of Heaven. Mythos magic relies on extradimensional aspects humans can't normally see or interact with. What are common effects of looking at Mythos things? Blurred vision, dizziness, nausea, headaches, etc. all the way up to full sanity-blasting Eldritch Horror as your mind fills with the understanding that the human mind cannot hold. That's simply how the setting works. The new Delta Green makes a much stronger case for genre than the original CoC.

A basic rule of thumb to identify whether a mechanic is just accurately depicting a part of the setting or whether it is there to represent tropes of a particular genre or author is whether the rule is engaged by the player or the character. Genre rules are most of the time player-facing, with a 4th wall breaking awareness.
 
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Another genre for example, Cyberpunk. If I write a Cyberpunk game and include rules for cybernetics and virtual reality hacking, you may call those "genre rules", but while those technologies are elements of settings that fall under the Cyberpunk genre, just having rules for bionic arms isn't a genre rule. Declaring the rule "High Tech, Low Life" and having all PCs come only from the street background, and make sure they never get enough money to join the jet set no matter how good they get, is a genre rule. I'm specifically playing to a trope as represented by specific types of characters in specific stories, not the backdrop of the world those stories takes place in.

Now sometimes you can have both. For example, Humanity in Cyberpunk 2020. That's simply describing how technology works in the setting, the more machine you become, the less human you become until you go temporarily nuts. But, the dehumanizing effect of technology is also a major theme in Cyberpunk literature.

Sometimes you do get a twofer. :grin:

But, like Sanity in CoC, Humanity in Cyberpunk 2020 isn't implemented in a way that really enforces genre or gives players any kind of choice to make. It simply is. You choose to read The Necronomicon, there will be a set effect. You choose to become Robocop, without good therapy, you're gonna go bazonkers. There's no "This is happening because Cyberpunk" or "To other people in the world this doesn't happen but because you're a Lovecraftian Protagonist we're doing this."
 
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Seeking to more accurately emulate our reality more than anything.

So the sole design goal in making combat lethal is emulating reality? Genre does not play into it at all?

Supers are something completely different from most other RPGs in that they're rules, even when emulating setting, try to emulate genre as well.

The crux of our disagreement is precisely that I don't think that's "completely different" — merely more pronounced. A difference in degree rather than kind.

If you look at most Appendix N titles, the heroes start out experienced, we find out their histories later, if at all. If anything, D&D going Zero to Hero is defying literary tropes as much as it follows mythic tropes like Campbell's Heroes' Journey. Of course sometimes Occam has his day, and the answer could be because that's how life works? Traveller allows for you to start as a 45 year old veteran, it also allows you to be fresh out of your first tour. You don't have to keep pushing the age up. People usually do because they want a damn ship, or JTAS membership, not because they're trying to emulate H Beam Piper or whoever.

So D&D thumbs its nose at genre... except when it doesn't. Gotcha. ;)

Traveller's character creation mini-game hinges on the gamble between taking another term (and more skills and mustering-out perks) at the risk of killing the nascent character, but the bottom line is clear: more experience = more skill = better. Competency porn at its finest.

Sure insanity is all through the stories, but that's a setting conceit, no more a literary or genre trope than being able to sail West in Middle Earth and beach your ship on the shores of Heaven.

A brush with horror drives you crazy. Walk in one direction long enough and you'll stumble upon the home of the gods. How are those not genre tropes?
 
Now sometimes you can have both. For example, Humanity in Cyberpunk 2020. That's simply describing how technology works in the setting, the more machine you become, the less human you become until you go temporarily nuts. But, the dehumanizing effect of technology is also a major theme in Cyberpunk literature.

Sometimes you do get a twofer. :grin:

Lose the "sometimes" and we are in perfect agreement. :grin:

But, like Sanity in CoC, Humanity in Cyberpunk 2020 isn't implemented in a way that really enforces genre or gives players any kind of choice to make. It simply is. You choose to read The Necronomicon, there will be a set effect. You choose to become Robocop, without good therapy, you're gonna go bazonkers. There's no "This is happening because Cyberpunk" or "To other people in the world this doesn't happen but because you're a Lovecraftian Protagonist we're doing this."

But the set effect is happening precisely because the fictional universe is operating under genre rules! Sufficiently advanced setting rules are indistinguishable from genre emulation. ;)

Genre shapes setting. Setting emulation inevitably segues into genre emulation.
 
Tell me what genres all those things are trying to emulate. "Competency porn" is not a genre, nor is it specific to the sci-fi genre, or any other, unless "Your standard literary protagonist" is a genre. The Hero's Journey isn't a genre any more than a Jungian archetype is a genre.

The fact that the d6 Star Wars game had lightsabers isn't playing to genre. The fact that it had rules for dramatic complications and heros had special rules is playing to genre. Top Secret had no genre rules (only optional Fame and Fortune). 007 had hero points to let the player make the game more like a Bond movie.
 
Tell me what genres all those things are trying to emulate. "Competency porn" is not a genre, nor is it specific to the sci-fi genre, or any other, unless "Your standard literary protagonist" is a genre. The Hero's Journey isn't a genre any more than a Jungian archetype is a genre.

Not genres, but genre tropes.

Competency porn is all over the classic SF that inspired Traveller.

The Hero's Journey is more likely to be found in Appendix N than in the Hugo Awards winners list.

Genres are fluid things with loosely defined borders, which makes it extraordinarily tricky to pin down tropes that are absolutely, undisputably genre-specific.

But I find it hard to dispute that fictional universes (both in literature and gaming), and the laws they operate on, are shaped by underlying genre tropes.

The fact that the d6 Star Wars game had lightsabers isn't playing to genre. The fact that it had rules for dramatic complications and heros had special rules is playing to genre.

Featuring impractical high-tech versions of weapons that harken back to history and myth is not a space opera trope?
 
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You kind of have a problem there, because many of the worlds we are talking about were created by authors before the genre and trope existed. Genres and tropes are only created over time, built from bodies of works that share similar things. Tolkien drew from myths of half a dozen cultures at least before he created single-handedly "Tolkienian Fantasy". You want to talk Competency Porn, Conan is the John Holmes of competency, not really a sci-fi dude. You also still are ignoring the fact that you can easily make both Luke Skywalker age characters and Ben Kenobi age characters in Traveller. Both types of people obviously exist in the setting, so you can make either one or anything in between. There is no sense of "to better emulate Author X or Novel Series Y, we are going to make all PCs operate this way."

Featuring impractical high-tech versions of weapons that harken back to history and myth is not a space opera trope?
You're conflating the rule or mechanic of the RPG with the original work itself. Were the Weird Tales serials an influence on lightsabers? Certainly, but they also are the katanas analogue to the Jedi samurai analogue influenced by Kurosawa. But in any case, the reason lightsabers are in WEG d6 Star Wars is NOT because the authors at WEG were trying to play to space opera tropes. They are in Star Wars, because the Star Wars universe has lightsabers. They have other rules in the game that play to the space opera/serial genre. Lightsabers are not one of them.
Because the Doctor Who RPG has Daleks and a Tardis doesn't mean it's playing to genre any more than the Rocket Age RPG is playing to genre because they have rocket ships to Mars and hawkmen. What makes them play to genre is the Story Point mechanic that lets the players bend play to match the stories those games are based on.

Just because I *can* make the hyper-competent late 30s early 40s in the prime of his awesomeness character in Traveller doesn't mean the game is playing to genre, because I can also make a n00b or an ancient know-everything that's about to kick off the mortal coil without his age drugs. Mythras lets you make everything from 16 to 90 year olds, so what genre is that enforcing?
 
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I guess the reason why I don't think the more broad and general definition of genre works for RPGs is because now we have games that are very specifically playing to or enforcing genre and genre tropes in the literal literary sense.
There is a difference between playing in the setting described by a novel, and playing as if your characters were literary protagonists in the stories themselves.
 
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You kind of have a problem there, because many of the worlds we are talking about were created by authors before the genre and trope existed.

Not a problem at all, as we're not talking about these seminal works, but rather about the games they inspired.

Tolkien drew from myths of half a dozen cultures at least before he created single-handedly "Tolkienian Fantasy".

Yes he did, and his work is rife with the tropes of Indo-European myth. ;)

You want to talk Competency Porn, Conan is the John Holmes of competency, not really a sci-fi dude.

"Competence porn" is a relatively SF-specific flavor of protagonism. It's less "born in a battlefield under the steely skies of Cimmeria" and more "I am a ridiculously qualified pilot/engineer/scientist/soldier" — guess which one Traveller loves.

You also still are ignoring the fact that you can easily make both Luke Skywalker age characters and Ben Kenobi age characters in Traveller.

You absolutely can, but the ruleset encourages one choice over the other. I believe this is intentional.

There is no sense of "to better emulate Author X or Novel Series Y, we are going to make all PCs operate this way."

I am not saying that genre emulation is the be-all end-all of game design, or that it everbwas the sole concern of any one game designer (at least outside the Forge/Storygames movement).

I, for one, really enjoy the "gaminess" that comes from not having protagonism mechanics. Though I can live with a few, like Savage Worlds' Bennies and Wild Die.

Because the Doctor Who RPG has Daleks and a Tardis doesn't mean it's playing to genre any more than the Rocket Age RPG is playing to genre because they have rocket ships to Mars and hawkmen. What makes them play to genre is the Story Point mechanic that lets the players bend play to match the stories those games are based on.

Killer robots and time machines in a SF game aren't "playing to genre"?

I guess the reason why I don't think the more broad and general definition of genre works for RPGs is because now we have games that are very specifically playing to or enforcing genre and genre tropes in the literal literary sense.

Here, I'll try another formulation.

What I understand to be genre tropes include (1) things that exist in the fictional universe as perceived by the characters (lightsabers, killbots, time machines) and (2) dramatic conventions (competency porn, hero's journey, fan service, etc.). These two broad categories roughly correspond to Justin Alexander's "associated" and "dissociated" labels, which he applies for game mechanics. Rules for lightsabers are "associated", rules for the hero's journey are "dissociated", if I got it right.

Now, for some reason you seem to lock down "genre tropes" as #2 and I habe two hypotheses on why this happens: my English is shit, and/or Forge jargon shits up everything. These hypotheses are not mutually exclusive, but whatever the case...

I posit that there are elements in a fictional universe that straddle, Schrödinger's cat-like, between #1 and #2. Consider for a moment that Luke is a spunky rim world farm boy with a destiny — to what degree is this strictly literary convention, or an actual operational principle of the universe he lives in? The Force is indisputably real, though whether it does guide Luke's destiny, and to what degree, is up for grabs.

Insidiously, this decision makes no difference for the author or reader; in fact, the uncertainty around open-ended questions generates a certain tension that many readers will find stimulating and enjoyable. The poor bastard who designs a game, however, cannot indulge the luxury, however; the designer must take a stance on the metaphysical bullshit and run with it.

If the Force favors a certain set of actions and behaviors (that add up to dramatic convention — farm boys with destinies, calls to adventure, refusal, mentor, descent into the underworld, the whole shebang), rules that enforce and reward them are associated mechanics per Justin's jargon.

I hope I got my point across now. :smile:
 
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I edited my post a little, but you posted after, this answers your last post too.
Featuring impractical high-tech versions of weapons that harken back to history and myth is not a space opera trope?
You're conflating the rule or mechanic of the RPG with the original work itself. Were the Weird Tales serials an influence on lightsabers? Certainly, but they also are the katanas analogue to the Jedi samurai analogue influenced by Kurosawa. But in any case, the reason lightsabers are in WEG d6 Star Wars is NOT because the authors at WEG were trying to play to space opera tropes. They are in the Star Wars RPG, because the Star Wars universe has lightsabers. They have other rules in the game that play to the space opera/serial genre. Lightsabers are not one of them.
 
the reason lightsabers are in WEG d6 Star Wars is NOT because the authors at WEG were trying to play to space opera tropes. They are in the Star Wars RPG, because the Star Wars universe has lightsabers. They have other rules in the game that play to the space opera/serial genre. Lightsabers are not one of them.

My point is that the dramatic conventions of the space opera/serial genre can be as much a part of the Star Wars Universe as lightsabers.

And space opera heroes have been swordfighting ever since John Carter. Lucas just added lasers.
 
Right, but we aren't talking about writers, we are talking about RPG design, and what RPG mechanics are there specifically to mimic genre and which ones are there to accurately detail a setting. We could open up all of human history and just say it's all 7 plots and there's nothing new if we really go the whole way down the road you've got us on.
You mention Indo-European myth as inspiration for Tolkien, let's have a little contest. Read MERP and point to exactly which MERP mechanics were chosen because the authors of MERP wanted to play to the tropes of Indo-European Myth, Anglo-Saxon Literature, Icelandic Sagas, Tolkien's novels, or whatever tropes you feel like. At the same time, I'll read The One Ring and tell you exactly which mechanics were chosen because the authors of The One Ring were specifically trying to make the game experience feel and play like the novels themselves. Then we'll do the same thing with Top Secret/James Bond 007, Aces and Eights/Deadlands, etc.

As authorial intent for an RPG mechanic, setting accuracy and genre emulation are not the same thing at all.
 
You expanded your post again, so instead of expanding mine, I'll make a new one.
I see genre as more limited. Genre refers to a classification of some kind of media. Since we're not talking about music really, we're stuck with literary fiction, film, comics, etc.

If I am writing an RPG mechanic to emulate genre, I am not just writing a mechanic that is associated within the game world, I am writing a mechanic to specifically alter gameplay so that the session plays like one of the stories I am emulating as a literary work. So yes, you are right, I do define genre rules almost always by definition to be dissociated.

In the Star Wars RPG there are lightsabers, associated, simple setting accuracy.
In the Star Wars RPG there are Dramatic Complications, the Wild Die and other rules there to allow my character to act more like a character in the Star Wars movies. Dissociated, and there specifically to mimic the genre source.

In the Call of Cthulhu RPG, seeing Mythos creatures drives you insane. A part of the cosmology and science of Lovecraft's setting, it's how things work, no different from gravity or other Physics. Associated, and not there to reinforce genre.
In the new Delta Green RPG, as a player I can choose to avoid insanity by sacrificing my bonds with family members and friends, thus making gameplay seem like the slow degeneration and isolation that surrounds people who encounter the Mythos in Lovecraft's stories. Dissociated and there to make gameplay specifically more like the stories themselves. Genre emulation.

Do I think there are cases where a mechanic could be associated yet also enforce genre? Yes, I do, but I think those cases are a lot more rare and hardly commonplace.
 
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I personally find that the trick for a good genre mechanic is one that allows the opportunity for the tropes of the genre to be expressed, without enforcing them or restricting choice on the players artificially.

The two best expressions of this I can think of is FASERIP'S Karma Point mechanic, and DW:AITAS's Initiative mechanic.

In Dr Who, a major genre conceit that allows the Doctor to be an effective character without the use of violence, is his ability to talk his way out of situations. DWAITAS supports this by its combat initiative order, in which players get the chance to talk first, then move, and attacks always happen last. This creates opportunity, but it doesnt artificially devalue violence or empower talking, such as it would if there was a mechanic that said something like "if you make your "Talk" roll, then no one can attack you that round."

In the case of FASERIP, superhero comics (specifically Bronze Age Marvel), the genre conceit is that heroes are, by virtue of being stalwart moral champions, capable of accomplishing impossible feats and succeeding continuously against the odds. Karma provides the opportunity for this in the game, by giving characters who act heroic, the means to increase their chances of success. It doesnt force players not to act immorally, it simply provides a benefit comparable to that expressed in the comics to those who do. It doesnt mean players cant play anti-heroes, like The Punisher, it means that the approach of the Punisher has to be more cautious and realistic, he cant jump in like Captain America and beat the crap out of everyone and save the day, he has to plan, rely on stealth and surprise.
 
What I find interesting about the One Ring and Adventures in Middle Earth is how much it is tailored to mechanically represent and reproduce themes and concepts in Tolkien's books. But I actually think that these concepts can work wonders for other RPGs when separated from the source material.

Examples:
  • the corruption system (easily used to simulate insanity, hubris, Chaos etc...)
  • Journeys (used to make voyages feel like they matter instead of being a boring slog with meaningless random encounters)
  • Sanctuaries (used to allow PCs to establish safe places for them to recuperate; they can build up relationships and get more missions, beneficial downtime activities and even "unlock" new abilities)
Perhaps this is because Tolkien was such an influence for fantasy literature and gaming. I just find it interesting how a new game that focuses so hard on Tolkien's tropes could potentially enhance many, many other games in different genres.

I could see using these systems in Sci-fi and modern settings as well.
 
Journeys (used to make voyages feel like they matter instead of being a boring slog with meaningless random encounters)

You got my curiosity there, could you elaborate on this particular mechanic?
 
So yes, you are right, I do define genre rules almost always by definition to be dissociated.

Agree to disagree?

I personally find that the trick for a good genre mechanic is one that allows the opportunity for the tropes of the genre to be expressed, without enforcing them or restricting choice on the players artificially.

Same here. Unobtrusive, immersive mechanics FTW.
 
You got my curiosity there, could you elaborate on this particular mechanic?
I don't have the book right in front of me, but basically taking a journey from point A to B takes in a lot of factors that will influence rolls on the journey events tables (which dictates what befalls the party during the adventure and in what state the PCs will be in once they arrive at their destination.

These factors include:
  1. The starting location (is it a "Sanctuary"? Or at least a comfortable starting point? or did the party spend their downtime in a crappy barn in a shady part of town?
  2. Their preparations: research, stocking up on supplies, maps etc...
  3. The distance that they're travelling
  4. The harshness of the terrain (rolling grasslands vs. mountains and swamps)
  5. How "tainted" the terrain is (are they venturing into a haunted forest, through cursed swamps etc...)
  6. How well the party is getting along (is there a lot of tension? are any party members high on corruption)?
  7. Familiarity with the journey and/or scouting/path finding skills of the party
All of these things grant modifiers*, for good or ill, on the 3 or 4 tables that the party rolls on to essentially dictate how well it goes. If I remember correctly, there aren't many battles, but they could happen. Most of these table encounters are narration-based with a few skill checks.

Example: the party encounters a beautiful vista in an otherwise bleak, dreary land. Everyone gets to make a relevant ability check to shrug off some of the sadness/corruption and thus removing or avoiding a level of Exhaustion.

* these "modifiers" aren't piles of stacking pluses and minuses. It feels more elegant than that.
 
The One Ring has some really cool mechanics. I like the combat stances, for instance. They aren't too crunchy either.
 
I think the labels shifting in Masks is great. It depicts the constant flux of teenagers' emotions that's central to the game, and in a gameable form that makes play as much about influencing others, as about fighting. Like a Pendragon young brother.

What are your favorite mechanisms that push games' central themes forward? Speak a bit of why you like it!
 
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