System vs. Narrative

[Matt James]

Do you easily differentiate between the two? I see a lot of fuzziness in regards to this when I look at the Forgotten Realms community (my roots!)

[Brian Cortijo]

I think part of the problem is that a lot of people have the impression (due to the beating of particular drums) that disagreeable narrative changes are motivated by rules changes (that weren't especially agreeable to those folks in the first place). When you associate a narrative decision with a system decision--for example, if you associate the killing of Mystra at the advent of the 4E Realms with the need to loosen the strictures of how magic (and therefore characters) work--then it's difficult to separate your feelings about one from your feelings about the other.

For me, narrative always trumps system. In the case of the Forgotten Realms, I'll play just about any edition (from OD&D to 1E/2E/3E/4E/Pathfinder/Basic D&D), and would happily experiment with other formats and platforms (see also: Skyrim).

[Diffan]

I agree with Brian on this. For me it doesn't matter what the system is because I don't associate system with time in FR's history. I could easily do 4E in 1284 DR, 3E in 1479 DR, or E6 in 1375 DR. It doesn't matter because it's more about the story than the way I specifically affect that story.

[Steelfiredragon]

narrative... you can have the best idea in the world and it be presented in the worst way imaginable.


4e's system was not that bad... despite what people think, neither was 3.x(save the paladin must by lg) or add.

cant say about 1e though

[D'karr]

Do you easily differentiate between the two? I see a lot of fuzziness in regards to this when I look at the Forgotten Realms community (my roots!)

For a generic high fantasy setting such as the Forgotten Realms, Greyhawk, or even the Wilderlands of High Fantasy, I don't think that "system" really is that important. You could rather easily use all the story background of these settings with 1e, 2e, 3.x, 4e, or even other systems such as GURPS, Savage Worlds, or HERO.

There are some other settings that are more heavily tied to the mechanics. To the extent that some mechanical assumptions of the system must exist for the setting to "work properly" or "feel right". Earthdawn and Warhammer come to mind. The narrative of those settings makes certain assumptions of the game system needed. Weirdly magical for Earthdawn, and Very Gritty for Warhammer. So if the game system being used cannot easily "replicate" or "conform" to these assumptions then the narrative doesn't work as well. It becomes strained.

For example until 4e, I had never considered using any other "system" except the default one for running Earthdawn. The mechanics of 4e are very malleable in a sense that allows that system to be adequate for running Earthdawn. Before 4e trying to run Earthdawn with any version of D&D would have been very taxing and unsatisfying.

I've never seen a problem with running Forgotten Realms with almost any game system.