So the other day, I commented against this post on d20 Radio’s forums. And then I realized I had a bit more to say about the subject, so here we are!

I think the d20 revolution is over. There’s this huge push, in practically every corner of the RPG industry, towards “story-focused” systems. Deadlands, Cortex+, Star Wars Edge of the Empire, FATE, Numenera, etc. Games where the burden of the story rests on both the GM’s and the players’ shoulders. The burden of the mechanics also ends up split, and the results are extremely open-ended.

d20 and all its offspring have such codified rules that sometimes the GM feels constricted by them, and the players are left with fewer options despite what seem like boundless character features. I know that this is a major complaint against Dungeons & Dragons 4e – when you have a small variety of very effective powers in front of you, it can become very difficult to think outside of that box, especially if the end result is less interesting.

In a lot of ways, I don’t think this is a fault of the system. It’s very easy to (and I adore FTDM PbP for showing me how heavy the RP can be in 4e) flavor actions, and given the right DM enjoy out of the box game effects. On the other hand, it’s not unheard of for a group playing FATE to feel constrained to acting within their aspects and skills, with a GM who’s stunt restrictive.

Some of this may seem like a rehash of my recent Fluff and Crunch post. It is and it isn’t. Edge of the Empire has high fluff/crunch connection while FATE has low connection, and both are story-focused. Pathfinder has high fluff/crunch while GURPS has low fluff/crunch, but both are system-focused.

I think the most poignant description I’ve heard so far regarding the difference between story-focused and system-focused games is somewhere in the BAMF Podcast (not sure where – I listened to like six in a row recently). One of the players describes his experience with both Marvel Heroic RPG and Mutants & Masterminds – M&M does whatever it can to simulate the physics of playing in the world of comics and superheroes, whereas MHR strives to emulate the comic books and films themselves. That right there is the big shift in how these games operate.

So, wait. What I’m saying here is… in a system-focused game (like D&D or ORC) the rules define how your character’s form interacts with the world around him/her. Feel free to say or do anything within those bounds. On the other hand, story-focused games guide how your character, as a story element, interacts with other story elements. Brilliant!

I’m excited. It’s going to be difficult getting out of the system-focused thinking. “I try to climb the wall,” turns into “When I climb the wall, it affects that other character this way.” I definitely want to keep playing system-focused games. But I have a feeling story-focused ones will finish off with a much more fulfilling feeling.