Valiens Nantaris
Head Admin
It’s been a long consideration of mine in the years I’ve been making, testing, using and tweaking RP and game systems that there is a conflict between simplicity and complexity.
On the one hand forum RPing makes it harder for people to pick up systems easily. The lack of personal interaction, the time between posts and the wide variety of people means that you need something simple enough for people to pick up.
The problem is of course that simplicity is hard to equate with detail. A simple and easy to use system has to be, by nature, abstracted. This means that such a system is basically just scratching the surface and is ultimately unsatisfying for realism purists.
To put that in easily understandable terms; a fleeting system.
An easy to understand and follow fleeting system, like my latest one, makes no differentiation between weapon types, calibres and many other details a purist might like. It’s basically a method of fairly resolving RPs by rolling some dice and adding or subtracting numbers from the result. It’s easy to understand, but like a microwave dinner it’s unsatisfying.
A more in-depth system meanwhile, would equate different shield and hit points for every submission in the factory (or at least for each class), would break down weapons and assign individual attack, damage and abilities to each. It would also take account of more advanced strategies such as the presence of PCs commanding ships increasing their attack, and damage to specific parts of a ship. However, it would also be much harder to write, to test, to use, and ultimately will probably never please the purist or the ordinary RPer. It provides a richer and fuller experience, but like a 5 course banquet, is probably more effort than its worth.
So obviously, try the middle ground? The problem is that everyone has a different idea of what they want, not everyone even wants a system in the first place, and it will never please everyone who does use it.
So where does that leave us? Well, after two years on SWRP I’ve not found this holy grail, but still I press on in the hope of one day finding a way to reconcile RPers and invasions, to combine duels and battles to make something epic.
On the one hand forum RPing makes it harder for people to pick up systems easily. The lack of personal interaction, the time between posts and the wide variety of people means that you need something simple enough for people to pick up.
The problem is of course that simplicity is hard to equate with detail. A simple and easy to use system has to be, by nature, abstracted. This means that such a system is basically just scratching the surface and is ultimately unsatisfying for realism purists.
To put that in easily understandable terms; a fleeting system.
An easy to understand and follow fleeting system, like my latest one, makes no differentiation between weapon types, calibres and many other details a purist might like. It’s basically a method of fairly resolving RPs by rolling some dice and adding or subtracting numbers from the result. It’s easy to understand, but like a microwave dinner it’s unsatisfying.
A more in-depth system meanwhile, would equate different shield and hit points for every submission in the factory (or at least for each class), would break down weapons and assign individual attack, damage and abilities to each. It would also take account of more advanced strategies such as the presence of PCs commanding ships increasing their attack, and damage to specific parts of a ship. However, it would also be much harder to write, to test, to use, and ultimately will probably never please the purist or the ordinary RPer. It provides a richer and fuller experience, but like a 5 course banquet, is probably more effort than its worth.
So obviously, try the middle ground? The problem is that everyone has a different idea of what they want, not everyone even wants a system in the first place, and it will never please everyone who does use it.
So where does that leave us? Well, after two years on SWRP I’ve not found this holy grail, but still I press on in the hope of one day finding a way to reconcile RPers and invasions, to combine duels and battles to make something epic.