Introduction

    This year I'm trying something different for a New Year's resolution; I'm going to try to make a table-top RPG. I've always had issues with the available options, and instead of being a critic, it's time to see if I can't come up with some improvements.

   RPG systems tend to fall under one of two rubrics: Sandbox or Amusement Park. In a Sandbox system there are very basic rules (ie, Vampires can do X, Y, and Z), but the imagination of the participants is the primary limiting factor. In an Amusement Park system there are relatively rigid rules and the creativity of the participants is restrained within them. Video games tend to do a very bad job of handling Sandbox systems (since they are inherently rule bound), and table-top games tend towards the opposite (the more complex the rule set, the more math will be involved). What interests me most is something in between the two; a system with a versatile rule set that allows for nearly limitless creativity without creating an unbalanced universe.

  There are already some systems that purport to do what I want to do, but I have generally found them to be a bit too sandboxy. When rules are written broadly enough to accommodate universes as disparate as sci-fi, fantasy, and modern superheroes they tend to not do a terribly good job at capturing any of them. My system will be restricted to a fantasy universe, but will be loose enough to accommodate any consistent sociocultural system. The laws of my universe will be magic, but will be consistent regardless of context.

  To accommodate multiple settings and styles, this system will have to reduce the concept of a fantasy RPG to its brass tacks, then create a modular structure that meets all demands. In the next post, I will attempt to distill the base nature of a fantasy RPG so that I can construct one that fits my requirements.