...Things mentioned in this topic is absolutely correct.
And things mentioned in this topic is also completely useless except for people who already believed in them.
There have been so many various arguments against coming up with your own systems. Ranged from
"What's your point?",
"Can't you just used DND/COC/GURPS/FATE?etc?",
"Nobody would play it because DND/COC/GURPS/FATE/etc.",
"It's not going to give you any fame/make you any money"...
It's all true.
But,
what does that has to do with me?Making a system isn't an occupation? Yeah, I know.
Making a system isn't gonna make me likeable or famous or make what I say worth a dime? Uh-huh, what else.
There are already better things out? Of course, I've seen sooooo many of them already.
Lots of my stuffs are BS? I call out what's BS in other people's stuffs as well, that doesn't mean I or anybody else ain't full of BS either.
There isn't a point in making a new system.
But I don't do this because there's a
point.
I do this because
I like doing this.
You know, this is just the very same thing:
Gyrax faced when making Chainmail,
Pondsmith faced when making Cyberpunk,
Hicks faced when making FUDGE and FATE,
Bulmahn faced when making Pathfinder.
(I was part of those people with FATE and PF back then.)
"Why do we need some new things when the old one worked just fine?"
(Well, in Gyrax's case its "Why don't you do something
productive?")
We don't.
But
so what?I ain't going be Gyrax, Pondsmith, Hicks or Bulmahn. I ain't that good nor do I ever expected to be.
I just do this because its my hobby.
There's as much point in making a new system, as putting out loads of words, sometimes numbered beyond said systems, to say why we shouldn't make new systems.
There's as much point in making a new system as coming to forums, this or any other ones.
If EVERYTHING we do in life MUST have a point, then we're all failing to live by at least 50%.
That said, if I see BS "systems" I do call out BS when I see them. BS is BS, especially if all you see is a bunch of idea notes without any coherent mechanics or attempts to make things playable, the way noobs just copied what they see from a smartphone game or MMO but never considered the "how".
But I stopped asking "why", cause asking "why" is at the end of the day, pretty stupid.
Nor is it my right to tell anyone, "no, that way's much better. You should just give up."
I'll just quote from another place's game design forum, since they explained it better than I do:
Do not engage in one-true-wayism system-warring. This is not meant to stifle discussion of particular game design methods and their pros and cons. Rather, this is meant to prevent situations where people are told that their preferred resolution method is objectively bad in threads where they didn't even ask for input on their preferred resolution method. Consider this a subset of "address the actual questions asked."
Acknowledge that everyone here isn't striving to be a commercial game designer. This is not boot camp for game design. If a new user is messing around with their first-ever game design project, it's not your job to break them down, strip out their supposed naivety, and remold them into a hardcore professional game designer.
As long as you are keeping your day job, you should be free to pursuit whatever suited you.
