Game Nerd: mechanics noodling

[curgoth]

A thing I have noticed about myself, especially when I GM, is that I fall in love with systems. I read a game book, and fall in love with the mechanics. So I try to run the game, only to come across bumps in the mechanics (and every system has them). I then end up fiddling with the rules to try and make them Perfect. What this seems to actually accomplish is that I spend too much time messing with the system for there to be much of a sense of consistency to the game, and the story suffers from lack of attention.

In an effort to try to curtail this tendency in myself, I am going to try to commit to not run a game in a system until I've done a session or two of just playing with the mechanics with throw-away characters, and no significant plot.

I still want to take the new World of Darkness system for a test drive before I try to run a game in it. Ditto for the crazy fantasy/tri-stat game I keep wanting to run. So, beware; if you're hanging out at my place, and we're bored, I might try to draft you to test out some wacky game system.

Do people think this sounds like a good idea? A bad idea? Should I just stop trying to run game and just publish my ideas on websites instead?

Comments

[corwin77.livejournal.com]

Well you know me, I'm always game for a...um...game.

[kalivor.livejournal.com]

I was hoping to run Mage in the new WoD, but the Mage portion won't be out until sometime late(r) in 2005. So, bah. Old rules for me.

[curgoth]

For Mage, it'd be pretty easy to take the human level mechanics from the new world of darkness and apply the magic from the old world of darkness mage. The result wouldn't match what the new book will be, but that's hardly important, I think. Basically, leverage the streamlined combat mechanics, skills and merits while leaving the spheres system intact. We can fiddle with this at some point...

[night--watch.livejournal.com]

Test away. YOu know my position: if the mechanics fuck up, make an abitrary ruling. You can always take it back later. *evil grin*