Speaking of Doing things

The "system" part of an RPG serves one major function, to determine if things get done or not (and sometimes how well they get done). So, sometimes that is important. Other times, not so much. 

I love talking about game systems and that will probably be a major part of this blog. I've played most of the more commonly known systems. I started gaming in the mid-80s. I started on 2nd ed AD&D. I think I played one session or two of 1st edition. In middle school and high school I did West End Games Star Wars d6 system and FASA's shadowrun (2nd and 3rd edition). I've done a little with Shadowrun 4th edition. I dabbled in the palladium system (mostly TMNT). When Wizard's released D&D 3rd edition and shook the foundation of reality with the OGL I jumped on that bandwagon like a drunken whore. I was an adult (or as close to that as I care to get, at very least I had some money) so I spent bucks on D20 crap. I have shelves of D20 books. D&D, D20 modern, lots of 3rd party stuff, you name it. I have dozens of d20 pdfs. 

when Wiz-co released D&D 4e I started off liking it. I got bored and sick of it within 3 months. I love the "game" part of it, and I don't hate the "roleplaying" part. I detest the magic items system and character creation/leveling is just pure hell. Whatever the reason...got bored. hard. fast. 

So I went back to d6, didn't like the d6 adventure rules so I did a custom revision of d6 using d20 at a template. It was a pain and a half. Took weeks and really, it's not 100%. The sad thing is I've kinda lost interest in d6 as I've done it. Something about the semi-sloppy old WEG rules made it more fun. 

Which really brings me to my point...if I have one. No system is really perfect. No system is clean and simple enough to be easy to learn and play but complex enough to be accurate. So you just need to find something that works most of the time and then house rule the hell out of it until it works for you and your players. 

I think Wiz-co got their heads up their backends trying to craft a perfect system. No version of D&D is anything like perfect from any perspective, it's just not. Every edition has some goofy annoying crap going on. THACO, grappling rules, magic items, something will be goofy and annoying and everyone will hate it but deal with it. (except for those weird clowns who try to defend it...like people who say they like the Last Airbender Movie - freaks.) 

I tried to do the same sort of thing. I tried to take d6 and give it all the good parts of d20 with none of the bad. It's not working very well. I challenge I've been as successful as Wiz-co. My players are happy most of the time, but the rules heavy nature of d20 has made the rules light d6 seem heavy. 

I started to revise d6 again to strip away all the goofy parts that make it seem heavy. It's coming along better but honestly, it's a TON of work. I haven't touched in weeks for three reasons. 

1. I'm a busy guy.

2. It's gotten boring. 

3. I haven't even played in like a month so who knows when anyone will see this and even then...will they kill me when I make them change their characters. (yes, they probably will). 

So...what to do? Options sir!

1. when we play again (I suspect near the heat death of the galaxy) we keep going with the semi-heavy rules and be damn glad of it...as they glare at me for equipment supplements I promised them would be done months ago and likely will never get done. 

2. knuckle down and get the revision done and all the supplements I promised for the new lighter rules. 

3. scrap it and do something else (keep story/characters the same?).