Casting Shadows

All of the #RPGaDAY prompts are meant more as inspiration more than constraint. Today’s prompt, for example, might ask us to consider where on the spectrum showing the relative simplicity or complexity of an RPG system our choice of RPG system sits. It might also ask us to generate a list demonstrating where we fall on that spectrum. It might suggest something else entirely. This is a more flexible and more slippery question than it might at first appear.

Unlike my first year responses of Shadowrun (complex) and BRP (simple), when the option to respond to a prompt rather than a question had not yet been introduced, I am going to go with simple / complex.

Day 24: What are (some) complex and/or simple games that you play?

At this stage of my gaming, I find complexity and simplicity are often erroneously ascribed the descriptors ‘heavy’ and ‘light’. There is also conflation between page count and whether or not a game must be complex or simple.

These days I tend to find heaviness to be a transitory property of games that we do not yet understand or do not know how to learn in a way that suits us. Once those games have been learned and then can become familiar, the sense of weight diminishes. It is of note that this feeling of challenge to run a game (heaviness) appears regardless of how detailed or sparse a system or setting might be.

It seems heavy because we do not yet know how to grasp and wield it – yet.

Complexity, in contrast, describes how many steps are involved in reaching a result. Like with other skills, we can become adept at handling complexity faster, and with less deliberate consideration – if we choose.

Simplicity, when seen as requiring fewer steps when using the system, does not automatically equate to ease of understanding nor to familiarity. We can become adept at interpreting the intention of the system tools we have been given or at adding our own, if needed. Likewise, we could focus instead on staying within the boundaries created by the game.

Neither simplicity nor complexity has a consistent effect by virtue of their nature on the user.

For some, the step-by-step procedures of a more complex game can be more open to learning and familiarization. For others, only the simple games, like those with all of the places for them to make rulings, or the ones with a single solution for all questions, or the ones with a carefully crafted and specific intention encoded into clear procedures, feel comfortable and sensible.

What I find interesting is that the systems that seem to endure and gain traction in large groups of gamers are those that are fundamentally simple (roll percentile, beat a fixed target number, etc). but have a particular complexity (or set of complexities) giving the game a distinct flavor.