I like books a lot. I read them for enjoyment mostly, but also to learn. In the role-playing world, there are a lot of books on rules, how to play, as well as lore, settings and a near infinite number of random tables to generate just about anything. In a discussion I had with my group (a really brief one, so really more of a comment than a discussion) it was mentioned that I don't need to have rules for everything. And honestly, yes, that is true in general. Yet without any rules, we are just playing make-believe without an agreed-upon framework of assumptions.
I favor consistency in most things. Heck - I write software for a living so consistency is a job requirement: that program had better do the same thing with the same set of inputs as it always does. Idempotency is a thing we strive for in software. And my game worlds also require that self-same consistency. Which is why I do like rules and more tightly structured game mechanics. And just as in software development, there are many frameworks to choose from. In fact we're rewriting some core software and are making a final decision this week after the environment changed: looks like I am going to be back to writing in .NET again!
For Traveller and all its incarnations, there is a consistent definition of a character, a world, or ships. The details may vary a fair amount (see all the fun trying to reconcile LBB 2 Starships with High Guard ships!) but that is really in the mechanical details more than anything. I will admit I have not read Hero Traveller or T20, but I feel the basic characters are probably pretty close. Not entirely interchangeable, but close enough that it would be relatively simple to convert between systems.
The comment came up about crafting and making magic items in the OSE game. OSE has a bare page on magical research and crafting: it will take a week and cost 500 gold for magical items per level of magical item. Double that for researching new spells. I somehow missed that when I was asked about the druid making magical items. We had a brief offline discussion and I decided that yes, he can create things but at 2 levels below his current level. That is, a level 3 druid can only craft level 1 magical tokens. I had not established a timeframe nor cost. The OSE book does give that info. The Fantasy Trip actually has some detailed tables for making magical things in its world. This includes time, specific ingredients and a few other things. And then I remembered I also had the Ultimate Guide To Crafting as a result of their failed miniature campaign. They were very good about that BTW. And within that giant book, there are some really detailed processes for this as well. Though written for 5e (and he mentioned that we are not playing 5e, but just as with pretty much any game or book, you can always pick and choose what works for your world), it is general enough that I feel we can use this as well if he wants. I'll see if he wants to borrow my book and read up on it. My guess is not: most of that group is "yes I read the rules but we're going to do it all differently and just keep this one thing." Though to be fair, they usually stick within the RAW, just ignore chunks of it which is mostly what RPGs do in order to better fit the game the players want.
Anyway - the crux of the question: too many rules? When I run a game, or play in one, I value an internally consistent world. Part of that is my personality, and part of my profession. But the rules are just the starting point: all RPGs have the implied rule 0, the rule of cool. But that only works if there are other rules so that you can't always "win" or succeed in everything you do in a game. It is like art or any creative endeavor: there are some initial rules, but after you learn those, you can draw outside the lines as you now know where those lines are. But for me, you first have to know where those lines are.
So yes, there can be too many rules. Equally, there can be too few rules. And as there are many types of people, there are many types of games running across the gamut of rule complexity. From Robin's Laws, we have the gamut of players that closely correlates with the mechanics. Ranging from the storyteller gamer that has the rules favor the GM in that the "crunchy bits weak, vague or abstract" to the power gamer where the "crunchy bits are powerful and tightly defined". What this means, at least to me, is that the vague rules favor the GM by allowing a lot more interpretation and freedom to do whatever you want in terms of the game. The tightly defined rules mean that the GM has little say in rulings as things are well-defined mechanically. Fate, for instance, seems fairly rules light with a lot of interpretation available to the game master. Traveller 5, on the other hand, has rules for EVERYTHING pretty much (even if not always well explained!). The Fantasy Trip has the combat and magic rules very tightly defined, but the most other rules and mechanics outside of that are well defined but not as complete. They give the GM more wriggle room for some things.
Now, like most GMs. I tend to pick and choose a fair amount when running games. I try to stick to the books and mechanics, but sometimes you have to draw outside the lines for the game to be fun. Something I am still trying to do even if for whatever reason I am not always comfortable with that. My players are - they just want to have fun and not worry overly much about the mechanics. Sadly, I always worry about the mechanics even if they are not aware of that concern (well, if they read this post then they will know!). One of the reasons my Traveller games do not do well: it is a mechanically complex game, and they really don't care about those mechanics as I do. And I think this also goes into our gaming preferences: most of them want to keep trying new games, new rules, new worlds. I want to understand the game mechanics, play games long enough so that I am not constantly worrying about the rules. Even though I consciously know I don't need to worry about them, I cannot help myself. Yes, I have a fair amount of self-awareness (and self-deprecation) but that does not mean I can do anything about sometimes!
To draw some sort of conclusion to this rambling talk: I don't think you can have too many rules. They don't have to all be used but can be useful as an inspiration on how to do things. Which is what I try to do just not too successfully Sadly, while this does work for RPGs, it does NOT work for software development! I keep getting books that I barely read but can use for inspiration and guidance in gaming. Which reminds me that I need to add more books to my library software!
Now if only I could figure out costing better in fantasy games! Of course, typing that out, I realize that the societies portrayed in these games would not have consistent costing. A larger city would probably charge more for the same food as a small inn in the country. Then you start factoring in availability and demand and the costs can be all over the place. I just need a base amount to start with. And then apply rules based on location, season, and...and yes, more rules!
And finally - Waffles. One of the games we play took an interesting turn this last weekend. We managed to rescue a Dryad, being pulled in a slave cart by a very tried donkey and guarded by a Grey Man and 6 mooks. We killed them (the Gery Man almost killed us) and freed the Dryad. My character, an Alligator raised by squirrels, named him Waffles. Originally it was a simple riff from Shrek, but then my character and a snake type of character realized we could have Waffles for breakfast. The Minotaur was not happy with that and was protecting Waffles as best he could. Waffles is now part of the party until my character gets hungry. Which is funny as I also really enjoyed playing my vegetarian Centaur who was the party cook. And there was this 'Gatorman who only ate meat. He did not like my barley stew. Slither came from this image and as I thought it was funny...and pretty sure I may have already posted this story. Happens when you get old (I turn 60 this year!)
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