Link - Characters Lifting a Rock

This thread on RPG.net is a very humorous (and non-mathematical) approach to comparing a lifting action across systems.

Aberrant: Of course you can lift the rock, and everyone is in awe and/or terrified of you for now.  Ultimately, it won't matter because all your works will be undone and you can't have children.

Mind's Eye Theater Vampire: You bid a strength trait and play RPS, then get distracted when your ex walks by, and gossip and complain about the other players behind their backs until the session ends and everyone gets drunk.

I'm Not Dead

I am still gradually recovering from the loss of my last computer.  I decided to try Open Office on the new one instead of buying MS Office or using my super old version, but Open Office makes my graphs uglier than they already were, so I am just going to install MS Office 2000.  My workplace is no better. 

This site got over 600 views in August.  I've got visitors from over 30 countries.  Eastern Asia is especially interested in the Principals of Recreation.  Many of you are looking for probability tables for Shadowrun 4th edition and World of Darkness, and for strength and intelligence information for D&D.  Many of you are also looking for the probability of death from falls of different heights, adult weight distributions, and adult deadlifting capabilities.  I have very few return visitors, as most of you tend to be searching for something in particular, find it and leave.

My personal favorite posts do not turn up in people's searches, and have very few views: RPG mechanics taxonomy, determining if dice are lucky, and a taxonomy of action success probability systems.

Projects I have in mind for the future are to finish out the deadlifting series, revisit death by falls for each system individually with greater detail, interviews with RPG designers, commentary on intelligence simulation, and the most comprehensive list of possible in-game effects.

Side Note

I finally gave GURPS 4th edition a perusal, and I was really impressed.  It looks like it fixes some of the bigger problems I had with 3rd edition.  I am happy to see that point costs for HT and ST have been decreased to reflect their in-game utility relative to DX and IQ.  Also, point costs for changing these four attributes have been made linear, which gets rid of the weird bump in 3rd ed. and looks prettier, though I will not go so far as to say a linear cost progression is necessarily the right way to go.  Since probabilities of success follow a nice normal curve, we see decreasing returns on investment either way, but less severely with the linear costs.

I am also a big fan of many powers being turned into "advantages", and the wide variety of modifiers available to customize how the powers work and how much they cost.  I haven't taken the system for a ride yet, but it looks good. 

The main downside is how bulky it is.  Well, maybe it's an upside.  My impulse is to say that players should make characters by first thinking up a detailed character concept, then going through the books from the beginning writing down what that character would cost, then selecting deleting that go over the point limit for the campaign, or enhancing what's there if the limit has not been reached.  There's way too much to memorize or keep in mind to make quick characters, but likewise it is far harder than other systems to game.  It is less obvious how to make characters that are uniformly better than others for the same points.  I'll keep poking at it over time.

Now that I've got falling deaths out of my system, I'm thinking of working on analyses and guides for strength scales or movement speeds.  I've got some good numbers hanging around, but not as much time as I'd like.
 

What Systems Do I Like?

People often ask me, "Why aren't you wearing any pants?"  Less often, they ask, "What is your favorite role-playing game?"  That is a slightly complicated question.  By which criteria do I judge RPGs?  The focus of this blog is their game mechanics, but a game may be a favorite based on the quality of the setting or how much fun with friends the game creates independently of mechanics and setting.  Here are the RPGs I am familiar with, and how I feel about them:

• Mutants and Masterminds:  This is my favorite right now. I have been very impressed with M&M's game mechanics.  It fixes nearly all of the problems I have with the d20 system (OGL 3.5).  There are some opportunities to min-max and create incredible powers, but an attentive GM can easily prevent it.  I love the superpower setting, but the mechanics can actually be applied to recreate most other settings.  I was impressed by Green Ronin for this game, and was looking for information on the 3rd ed. at their website when I found this article by their designer of the Dragon Age TTRPG in which he agrees with my own conclusion about die rolls.
• Action!: This free system by Gold Rush Games comes with instructions on customizing it!  I just stumbled upon this recently and have not played it, but it incorporates mechanics that I would use if I were creating a system.  It is worth checking out.
• Aberrant: This game has some of the most broken mechanics, and the canon storyline railroads campaign plots, but I have had tons of fun playing supers in this setting with friends and watching moral and ethical dilemmas unfold.
• Vampire: the Masquerade: I LARPed (live-action role-played) this for many years with the last version of the rules and setting.  I have not seen the current edition.  I met a lot of people this way, though not all of them were good to meet.  LARPing is a great role-playing experience, and V:tM is the easiest way to experience this because it is so widespread.  It's the Dungeons & Dragons of LARP.  Role-playing with 50+ people at a time is a blast, and this game fosters social and political maneuvers, shifting alliances, and secrets for a fun game.  Many of the other White-Wolf LARPs (Changeling, Werewolf, Mage, Oblivion) were not as conducive.  A bad storyteller will rely on sending monsters in for the player characters to fight, but good storytellers have long-term NPCs infiltrate player factions and subtly construct mysteries to be solved, complete with red-herrings and ambiguous clues that lead to both conflict and collaboration.  The mechanics are not great.
• Dungeons and Dragons: This is the Microsoft of the RPG world.  New gamers tend to come in with D&D because it has such a broad and deep foundation.  So many people play because so many other people play, and if you want to get in on a game, it is easier to find players familiar with and owning materials for D&D.  I don't like classes in games because they are too constricting, and lead to conformity instead of creativity.  I don't like levels in games because they also prevent customization and realistic development.  I don't like hit points in games because they are wholly unrealistic, and seem to solely exist to support the level system.  D&D has classes, feats, and powers set in stone in their system so they can sell lots of books with more.  What I like is the mechanics to create whatever powers are desired so that players can create whatever they want from a core book.  The d20 provides a linear progression of probabilities of success.  I have played each edition of D&D since the late '80s because those were the games my friends were running (and once I had the materials to play with them, I also ran a campaign), but I have not been satisfied. 
• Heavy Gear: I played in one campaign about 13 years ago, and I remember it being fun, largely because of the group.  The mechanics are a little weird, and encourage some min-maxing, but are relatively simple and straightforward.  The setting is not totally sensible, but provides opportunities for some different styles of campaigns.  You can also play a flat-out tactical mech game.
• GURPS: I only got to play GURPS once, but I've made characters in anticipation of other games I was told would happen.  I like that it is generic and uses point-buys.  The skill system tries well to be a good simulation, which I like, but is not great for game balance.  I do not like that powers and equipment are individually determined by Steve Jackson Games instead of them also giving us a point system for creating them.
• Chaosium: I'm getting around to it.
• Shadowrun: Also, just sitting on my shelf.
• Rifts: Totally silly.  Thanks, Palladium. 

I've played a couple others over the years, but they did not leave impressions.  I know there are more that I would like to play, such as Big Eyes Small Mouth, Hero, Paranoia, and Amber.  I will keep picking at the books I've got, then get a hold of more mechanics to evaluate.