WISH 81: My Favorite System

What’s your favorite game system, and why? What things don’t you like about it? How much do you have to “jigger” it from published rules and why?

Hmmm….I don’t really see myself as a system-oriented sort of player (or GM), so this is a tough one. There are quite a few games that I like, but that’s usually because of their ideas, atmosphere and world, rather than because of the specifics of their mechanics.

For the sake of the question though, I’ll pick the Amber Diceless RPG, only because it’s the one I’ve played the most over the past few years. Of course, that usually means tossing the auction, trashing the sorcery, fiddling with the artifact rules….okay, maybe this wasn’t the best choice, but it does illustrate my basic point. Even when a system is flawed, if I like the ideas behind it, I’ll tend to like the game. Near-perfect mechanics that are presented in a dry way just don’t arouse much enthusiasm, and, IMO, it’s easier to tweak rules than to fix a boring setting.