Systems and Genre Representation
Systems should represent genres, and some do this better than others.
System Excellence
Dr Who
One Dr Who RPG (I forget which) contained an absolutely genius initiative system. The initiative turn-order was:
- Speak
- Run
- Use an item
- Attack
This clearly produces unrealistic results. The system cannot allow anyone to shoot someone before they flee, or flip a switch before someone finishes a monologue. But it represents Dr Who amazingly well.
The crew finds themselves on an abandoned space ship, surrounded by Daleks. One goes to flip a nearby switch to seal the doors shut, but the initiative order demands the Daleks can speak first.
COME WITH US AS PRISONERS!
SEAL THE EXIT AND WE WILL HAVE NO CHOICE BUT TO EXTERMINATE EVERYONE ON OUR SIDE OF THIS DOOR!
The crew can now close the doors or run, or continue the discussion. Everything automatically proceeds in classic Dr Who style.
Bogeyman
This card-based horror RPG divides the game into three phases: the calm, the build-up, and the storm.
During the calm, players know they will not receive any damage, or find any unnatural horrors assaulting them. The build-up has each encounter draw a card. Low cards mean a jump-scare with nothing to it - perhaps a hideous face appears, then lifts off the Hallowe'en mask. Perhaps a sudden noise startles the group, but it's just a police siren.
The game builds in safety to add a juxtaposition to horror, directly mimicking A Nightmare on Elm Street or Hellraiser.
System Failures
Dungeons & Dragons
D&D has never managed to represent unlikely heroes with special abilities. No mages begin with an innate aptitude for fantastic magical powers - they all begin with the same level 1 spells. Players also cannot play excellent trackers, or legendary lock-pickers from the start. In earlier editions (such as Advanced Dungeons & Dragons), characters either had a skill, or didn't. In later editions, once professional skills received representation, nobody could add more skill-points than their level.
"Why" (a player might ask) "can I not play a more politically savvy and persuasive character?".
"Because you haven't killed enough goblins", replies the system.
Carrot from the Disc World, Ged from Earthsea, and even the poorly-written fantasy books based on D&D campaigns never seem to have any parallel with the potential characters in the systems.
World of Darkness
WoD contains about 3 pages of 'core rules', and resolving any problems with these core rules takes about 10 seconds. Meanwhile, the combat section takes up chunky chapter, and takes half an hour of book-keeping.
Looking back through the genre's iconic scenes: Louis fighting the Theatre of Vampires in Interview with the Vampire, or the men in Dracula shooting at the titular character, none of these feel like drawn-out logistics battles. They give the reader short, snappy, dramatic resolutions.
I've taken the liberty of writing a better combat system for White Wolf , as the original seemed in need of care.