There's a great quote down at the bottom of today's Penny Arcade post:

D&D in my opinion is not a game about rules, it’s a game about decisions.

This is something I'm coming to realize more and more, especially at this year's GenCon. The games that I enjoyed most (Call of Cthulhu, Unknown Armies, Spirit of the Century) have been very different from those that were less interesting or seemed to drag (Shadowrun, Alpha Omega, to a lesser extent CthulhuTech. Godlike is a bit of an outlier, a game that was fairly crunchy, but still was a ton of fun. I attribute it to the GM's (Allan Goodall I think) detailed knowledge of the era and his ability to combine interesting, actual events with a gritty super-hero theme.) I do love RPG systems, and seeing how the various mechanics facilitate or hinder different aspects of the game (combat, social interaction, skills, etc.), but there's something to be said for boiling it down to the simplest aspects possible.

As far as I can tell, looking through some of the books I've purchased, the former games were run with a much lighter set of rules than is actually published. The core ideas of each system were pulled out, usually into one or two mechanics, and the rest of the focus was on playing your character, interaction with the other PCs, and story building. This (and last year's GenCon) is a much different gaming experience than I was used to, and it's amazing when it works out. I think GenCon attendees are not the usual gamers -- simply by being there they've show more commitment, and maybe a little less sanity :P -- so I don't know how well it would translate to any specific group, but if you have a group of people who are willing to buy in to the story and the characters, and aren't necessarily in love with detailed rules and positioning and movement, it's a big reward.

Anyway, going back to the Penny Arcade quote, the focus should always be the characters and their decisions, not the systems that should really only be in the background to help you.

Wil Wheaton (yes, that Wil Wheaton) just finished a series of posts that might be interesting to anyone who's curious about Dungeons and Dragons. He ran a short adventure for his son and couple of his son's friends. Descriptions are here:

• Part I
• Part II
• Part III
• Part IV
• Thoughts as a DM

I know this is for a specific subset of my "audience", but has anyone used D&D Insider? With the Character Generator having its official release, I'm tempted to subscribe to get all of levels 1-30. I don't like spending money though, is it worth it?

Gabe is a girl on the run from some very bad people. After escaping from a secret government research facility, she is homeless in Nagasaki and trying to stay out of sight.

This is a snapshot of a character that I played recently in an OVA game with some friends. She has a deeper backstory, but that basically sums up where the campaign started. Unfortunatly, this is all that I had... she has no purpose, no reason for being. Her only desire is to not be found. That doesn't make for very interesting role playing, not to mention all the trouble it gave Paul (our GM) when he was trying to get Gabe and Holland's character to team up.

This is something that I'd never really though of before -- what is a character's purpose? I'm not the most creative person, but I can usualy come up with an interesting (read: corny) backstory. But when I was playing Gabe, it was frustrating. If my first priority is to stay hidden and not get into trouble, why would I investigate the weird foreigner running (at 60mph) around town? Why would I check out all the weird new construction in the city? Why would I do anything but find a safe, abandoned house and hide out there. There needs to be something more.

A purpose can help you decide how your character would act in different situations. It usually meshes well with any traits your character has. Am I naturally curious? Am I pretty cautious, but when it comes to protecting my family, or finding the orcs that destroyed my village, I get reckless and take more risks? When presented with open-ended decisions (common at the start of an adventure), how do I respond?

This is something that I'm going to have to take into more account during character creation... A character should have something important to them, something they're trying to accomplish. It makes them into more interesting people :).