I was thinking about ways setting a mood for an RPG. There are lots of things that help. Some people use lighting and music. Personally, lighting just makes things harder to read (must be my aged eyes) and music is just another distraction at the table. There’s plenty of MP3 sounds clips you can grab handy and add a bit for a few seconds. Miniatures and terrain (when you can afford to be accurate) help envision the scene. Plus there’s themed dice and all sorts of props from “old” documents, maps and coins. Heck, even the artwork in the rule book can give you inspiration.
But what was I really thinking about is rules. How should they help set the mood? What kind of rules help set a mood or establish a scene?
Yeah, this is one of those posts where I don’t have the answers. That’s why I’m asking. So what do you think? Good examples? Discuss!
Chuck on 
Philo Pharynx on 
One big way is how player empowerment works. In a gritty game, there might be none, or it might be limited to leaving you permanently injured instead of dead. In a cinematic game, it would let you do some nigh-impossible things and perhaps even take control of the narritave a bit.
Funny you should ask this question, as a friend and I have been having just such a discussion for a while. While we don’t have any answers, we do have opinions! (As if that’s surprising in a couple of gamers).
The rule framework directs the mindset of the players. Take AD&D 3, 3.5, Pathfinder, etc. I initially had my socks blown off at the possibilities these rules presented with all of the different options and customizations possible. After a while I realized that I barely had the capacity to figure out how all the skills and feats stacked, and I was never sure that I could calculate my bonuses correctly. The issue with these rules is that it’s a constant game of skill A has this effect, but skill B counters it, pitch the story out the window, lets figure out what dice to roll. It became very important to know the stats for everything, including the furniture that might get thrown in a bar fight. The scene no longer matters, it’s just a math problem to be solved. Blech (and I’m an engineer, btw!).
As a comparison, the original AD&D, for all it’s flaws, could be reduced to a single die toss to accomplish something. Walking on an icy mountain pass? Make a Dex roll. Done. No untrained acrobatics skill check to see if the character slips, no tumble check to see if he hurts himself when he falls. Just succeed or fail and get on with the consequences – no time wasted calculating that securing party members with a rope will get a +X to the roll.
My point is that the more complex and intricate the rules, the more the rules will interfere with the gamemaster casting his spell. So if one is after an immersive story experience, go with simple rules that don’t destroy the illusion. If one wants rules to dictate the game then come wargame with me, because RPGs are not for you.
Oh, and if the game doesn’t have situations where the correct action is to drop all of your stuff and run like hell it’s not worth playing!
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Original Deadlands did this perfectly. a magic system involving a deck of poker cards. Cards used again to track actions and initiative, with differing valued poker chips for rerolls and extra damage soaks. even the names of the skills and the layout of the character sheets were perfect for setting the right tone for the game.
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Playing classic Deadlands now. And yep it’s great fun and mood and tone are reinforced with the rules.
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