The Nitty Gritty of Role-Playing

First off folks let me apologize for how long it’s taken me to get this post together. I had a very odd thing happen while I was doing a little research for this article. I found out that old dogs do learn new tricks; I’ll get more into detail on that a little further on down the road. Well now that the apology is out of the way, let’s get to business.
Howdy and Welcome folks, today I will be rambling on about what I have called the nitty gritty of Role-Playing. Now I know some of you are sitting there wondering what your old Uncle Ted thinks of as the nitty gritty of RP. Well it’s a good thing I plan on telling you isn’t it. Too me the nitty gritty is the system and mechanics of the game.
Oh now just stop it all of you who were thinking I was going to be giving pointers on how to get in character. The “Role” in Role-Playing is important, in fact it is what makes the whole thing fun, but it is not the Nitty Gritty dirty details. It is not the part that takes a lot of work. As I have said before every little kid can pretend to be someone else for fun, but in RP you have to be able to back up the way you act with actual mechanics or you will find your character is much more work to play than fun.
Okay now you all who are thinking I am going to give you all sorts of tips on how to tweak your characters to be the end all, be all mechanics abusing machine are also wrong. Though, that can be a fun and challenging exercise in its own right. That is not what RP is all about either.
It’s about turning the piece of paper with numbers on it into a Character. It’s about how that sheet of paper changes to match how you are playing the Character and how you have to adjust how you are playing to meet the Sheet as well. It’s a delicate balancing act, a complicated dance, a great work of art when you can get everything working the right way. Just like you can not violate the laws of physics in real life, your character is bound to follow the rules of the system you are playing in.
Some systems are set up to allow massive cinematic action to run rampant, where others are set up to be as realistic as possible. Where, in some systems it is quiet common for a lone character to be able to easily mow through a gang of common thugs without so much as breaking a sweat, in other systems that is just not possible. In fact there are a number of systems where if a lone character were to go after even two common thugs you would end up with a very nearly or completely dead character. This is just a basic (and common) example of how the system in which you play can (and will) affect your RP options. It gets even more complicated if you are going for a long standing campaign where the way your character develops mechanically is heavily influenced by the happening of the game.
Some games are set up to where there is very little change to your character sheet possible through even the longest campaign. One system may have a very structured and organized way in which your character changes over time, where as another has a more organic and fluid way of handling it. All of these things can really make or break a character from the very start. Even worse these things can take a Character that has been great fun to play all of a sudden become boring because it is just the same thing over and over again.
Now this is where your old Uncle Ted ran into the issue that has delayed this for so long. I was planning on comparing and contrasting different game systems to give you all so idea of what I mean. So I was going to take two if the most popular systems and compare them head to head. Talk about each ones strengths and weaknesses, the pros and the cons the ups and the downs and all that fun stuff. The only problem with that is Uncle Ted was being a little bit of a hypocrite when it came to one of the systems. I had broken one of my cardinal rules for life, let alone for Role-Playing. I had closed my mind to something new because I thought I knew what it would be. I was prepared to sit and write something completely tearing a system apart for what I saw as a failing of past versions of the game without looking at the newest version. Shame on me is all I can say. The worst part is thinking back to the opportunities I passed up at having fun because of that closed mindedness.
Since I had seen the error in what I was doing and couldn’t put together anything I felt was worthy of reading about that system I decided to take a look at it. I would say another look at it but I had never so much as glanced at the new rules, just assumed they were a rehashing of the same old stuff, and boy was I wrong. At first glance on the surface it seemed to be that same as it had always been in my mind. It was just too static, too structured, too limiting, just not a good system to my mind. After that first glance I very nearly dropped the idea of giving it a chance. I just saw the same old same old, but luckily for me the Hobby Ferret in me kicked in and I got interested in one of the very few obviously new things. Even then I thought it was only just a cosmetic change, just a little change, a new thing on the surface without any substantive difference; but I decided to look a little deeper.
I am very glad I did. Looking at that simple little change brought the massive changes under the surface into view. It seemed that each new section I read fixed one of the issues I had with the system. In fact the only issues I have with the system now aren’t even with the system at, but with the company that sells it, and to be honest the system very nearly wipes those out as well.
So now that that is all said I know you all are wondering what the systems I will be comparing and contrasting will be. Well those of you who have known me for a few years will have already guessed one, but I will announce both here for all of you. So without further babbling or rambling I announce the title of my next blog……..
Dungeons and Dragons vs. The World of Darkness

See Ya’ll soon.