Rules-light, rules-medium and rules-heavy benchmarks
I was reading HiskiH's post regarding what they call the New Wave Of Fantasy and talking to them on the NSR Cauldron server about it, and I inevitably ended up on the same old questions and definitions about rule density1. This is the kind of crap that happens when we keep trying to rationalize playing make-believe, now isn't it? Regardless of the specifics of what we were discussing2, it inspired me to try and identify what rules-light, medium, and heavy mean for me, at this point in time.
It's mostly giving my perspective - with examples - on the unending rule complexity and density debate. I feel like picking two games with different amounts of rules for each category will be fun because it lets me compare how different things can feel rules-light and further illustrate how it's not about creating a rigid sort of defintion, but just providing context for when you're reading stuff I write or wanting to talk about mechanical heft.
Rules-light: FIST, by CLAYMORE, and Tunnel Goons, by Nate Treme
While Tunnel Goons fits in an A5 spread and FIST has about 30 pages of rules in its spectacular 150-page book, both of these games feel rules-light because I kinda never have to check the rules while playing?
Tunnel Goons is literally a page with a core resolution mechanic and some tables, while FIST has some more detailed procedures that are still all simple, easy to remember and generally invoked quickly in play. Even though in FIST I would still benefit from reading the rest of the rulebook (it is one of the greatest ttrpgs ever written, in my imo), I could explain to players the rules of both these games in five minutes, create characters in five more and start playing.
Rules-medium: Mythic Bastionland, by Chris McDowall, and Shadowdark, by Kelsey Dionne
I feel like both of these would still be considered rules-light to a lot of folks, but for me they really ask both the players and the GM to check the book every once in a while. However, I find it very hard to believe that I ever needed to check one of these games' rules for more than 20 seconds to clear something up.
Mythic Bastionland has a very simple player-facing core with a few more details during the combat minigame (also: it has a combat minigame), but a lot of procedures to invoke during specifc moments of play: exploration watches, specific hexcrawl generation, domain play, aging rules, and so on. Likewise, Shadowdark is probably quite simple for people already used to D&D, but still has a lot of unique stuff that everyone needs to keep an eye on, like the constant turn-based gameplay, stats with separate modifiers, spells with very specific defintions, rough movement ranges... Nonetheless, every bundle of rules is well-organized and generally contained in a single page or spread.
Rules-heavy: Scum and Villainy, by Stras Acimovic and John LeBoeuf Little, and Vaesen, by Free League Publishing
SaV and Vaesen have very different approaches to designing rules, but I feel like both of these games have a lot of them. Not only that, their books are chonky and generally take a while to reference, at least until you get used to where everything is. Oh, and not everything is where you expect it to be, which is a given when you start adding more rules in your rulebook, since people are going to prefer different forms of indexing and organization.
While Vaesen has a more traditional3 and maximalist approach, such as having restrictive roll results for skills, very detailed combat procedures (fire and poison spreading rules, initiative, slow and fast actions, ranges, etc), and lengthy monster and magic details, Scum and Villainy explores a lot of different intertwined moving pieces and phases of play, with a nearly 10-step core resolution system4 that interacts with different parts of the fiction and the mechanics... And a spaceship sheet! There are a lot of systems in place in both of them that, when missing any pieces, make something feel off.
This was a fun exercise in... Personal game taxonomy? I wonder how it would have looked like the first time I played ttrpgs and how it will look some years from now.
anb
Links: HiskiH's New Wave of Fantasy, FIST, Tunnel Goons, Mythic Bastionland, Shadowdark, Scum and Villainy, Vaesen
Should I be saying "rule weight"? "Rule volume"? I feel like "rule density" encapsulates both of that.↩
If you must know, I was hung up on one of the "promises" they outlined in the NWOF to be about "simple rules", which led to interesting debate and disagreements.↩
I don't really like using "traditional" since it's a murky word that doesn't really mean anything for people outside ttrpg discourse and reflects an uncertain view of play. But I did.↩
I think learning the main Action Roll in Scum and Villany (or Blades in the Dark, on which it's heavily based on) takes longer then reading all of FIST's rules. This is not a jab in any way shape or form, I fucking adore the Action Roll.↩