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Ron Edwards warned against hybridizing genres. He's usually right, but in this case, I'm realizing that there are reasons to make exceptions.
Old School Renaissance (OSR) games, like 1st edition Dungeons & Dragons allow the participants to create their own resolution methods for dealing with different situations. This is because a combination of factors, including the use of task resolution and the inability to create rules for every situation.
Eventually that changed so that you had one flexible resolution system that handled almost every task. The most extreme example of this is GURPS. Play changed a little, but it was still mostly combat-focused, and so it worked.
All that changed with smaller presses producing many games about a variety of non-combat focused themes. There were three ways to deal with the problem:
1. Ignore it and hope that everyone else doesn't think too deeply about it
2. Switch the focus to resolving why the action is taken (conflict), rather than how (task)
3. Return to the OSR trend of allowing players to design their own resolution methods
I've decided to take that third road with my own game, Metropole Luxury Coffin (MLC), which I had identified as a member of the gamist genre. Because so many people have been raised on the first and second roads, some retraining is in order. And so, I've designed three very different resolution methods for MLC, and then advised players to modify them or create their own methods:
1. Beat Test: This relies on dice with the character's face being used as a modifier, with the highest roll winning. Beat tests may be escalated by bidding more face.
2. Building/Performance Tests: This relies on cards which are used to make pairs based upon rank. This gets easier as more people join in.
3. Negotiations: Anything can be offered to secure a deal. If the character later renegs, zie loses face.
Of course, the devil's in the details, but I like that MLC isn't tied to using just dice, cards or negotiation.
(EDIT) This doesn't mean I consider MLC to now be a member of the OSR genre. That would require classes, hit points, weapons and armor lists, combat and related modifiers and a host of other details.
Old School Renaissance (OSR) games, like 1st edition Dungeons & Dragons allow the participants to create their own resolution methods for dealing with different situations. This is because a combination of factors, including the use of task resolution and the inability to create rules for every situation.
Eventually that changed so that you had one flexible resolution system that handled almost every task. The most extreme example of this is GURPS. Play changed a little, but it was still mostly combat-focused, and so it worked.
All that changed with smaller presses producing many games about a variety of non-combat focused themes. There were three ways to deal with the problem:
1. Ignore it and hope that everyone else doesn't think too deeply about it
2. Switch the focus to resolving why the action is taken (conflict), rather than how (task)
3. Return to the OSR trend of allowing players to design their own resolution methods
I've decided to take that third road with my own game, Metropole Luxury Coffin (MLC), which I had identified as a member of the gamist genre. Because so many people have been raised on the first and second roads, some retraining is in order. And so, I've designed three very different resolution methods for MLC, and then advised players to modify them or create their own methods:
1. Beat Test: This relies on dice with the character's face being used as a modifier, with the highest roll winning. Beat tests may be escalated by bidding more face.
2. Building/Performance Tests: This relies on cards which are used to make pairs based upon rank. This gets easier as more people join in.
3. Negotiations: Anything can be offered to secure a deal. If the character later renegs, zie loses face.
Of course, the devil's in the details, but I like that MLC isn't tied to using just dice, cards or negotiation.
(EDIT) This doesn't mean I consider MLC to now be a member of the OSR genre. That would require classes, hit points, weapons and armor lists, combat and related modifiers and a host of other details.