Light Rules

    Been a couple interesting posts recently on the subject of rules-light systems. I think this is more a reaction to the success of trendy new “lite” systems like Murk Berg, Care’n, Laser Feelins, etc, with which I’ve not interacted heavily to be honest. It certainly behooves me to say something on the subject though, given I have published a little heartbreaker that has “light” in the tile (Pathfinding Light). I’ll try and poke a little on my thinking for it, while also addressing Noism’s and Prince’s concerns. I’d call this self-aggrandizing, but given I’m publishing this one CC and it’s for free on DriveThru, I’m at a loss for how any aggrandization would occur from this.
  My marketing copy on Pathfinding Light talks about making it a simple, light, and easy game of d20 that actually supports campaign play. Kind of a Five Torches Deep treatment, but for Pathfinder as the base rather than 5E. My motivation was to see if the chassis could support a more old-school play experience, in part, but honestly another reason for it is that I wanted to print a booklet-sized product of only twenty pages counting covers. Five sheets of paper, folded and stapled, gets me a pleasing little booklet that I’ve noticed players will actually read. I think part of the genius of Knave that actually makes sense is the writer’s awareness that the majority of players would not read a 100+ page book cover-to-cover if their lives were on the line. I tried to organize things in my booklet so that players are actually usually only hitting 2-3 pages, for that matter, and the page count includes six pages of the GM section, a sample adventure, and a character sheet template. It’s been surprisingly successful for people using it, delivering a light if not ultra-light game that actually works for campaigns.
  A lot of the criticism for the new ultra-lights is the very reasonable objection that they’re so stripped-down that you cannot use them to…actually play a game. A distressing number of “rules light” systems aren’t actually there to play with by themselves…they’re designed as a light overlay for the vast and murky tribal knowledgebase that is “D&D”. Often, they propose to add something new, but in practice they’re just linking in the pop-culture knowledgebase of Call of Cthulhu. Give Knave to a precocious-but-culturally-isolated group of five nerdy 11-year-olds, and they’re going to struggle to play with it. My biggest criticism of rules-light systems is that they’re being sold to people who have played D&D, not to who you’d think they’d be best for, an audience unfamiliar with any of the tropes or playstyles built up over the last half a century of the hobby.
  I’ve tried myself to avoid that. The very basic mechanic of the d20 system is gorgeous…

1. Players try to accomplish thing.
2. GM sets the target number to succeed at thing.
3. Player(s) roll a d20 with relevant bonus(es).
4. GM narrates success or failure.

  There’s no reason why this central mechanic cannot be used for almost everything, and I do appreciate the simplicity there. Ages-ago lost techniques like morale checks and reaction rolls can be accomplished via d20 just as easily as d6. I’d like to think that group of sixth graders could take my booklet and a dice set and play out years-long campaigns with just those. That’s ambitious, but if you aren’t at least trying for that, you don’t have a rules-light system…
  …you just have a rules supplement.

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