Sam's suggestion of making a character to learn a system really helps. For example, when I first started looking at running a Star Trek: Adventures game, I made a balanced crew spread of 5 or 6 sample characters, both to have them if a role goes unfilled by my party and trial the mechanics through a self-guided trial session before I had players in front of me.
Very helpful advice. I have always struggled with new game system rules. The best way for me is to simply play it and look up the rule as it comes up during play. Very similar to creating the characters.
What's weird is a friend is debating what game to run and asked me to look a few over to help them pick, and yes I did find myself turning right to the PC creation pages but that was by instinct Same here expresses a logical reason for what I did by instinct. Char creation is the best way to understand a system
Oh building a proper BattleMech...... what period? Omni or straight chassis, pre Invasion (Just be careful, House Kurita/Draconis Combine actually had ER PPC's and Double Heat Sinks from memory, 3044 odd)? Or perhaps if you want to have some real fun, Jihad era. All the way down to the chassis, engine and frame, all the way up to the weapons and armour. It's fun and it's awesome and it takes a lot of time. A proper Ace custom, can be fun. I might have all the books lined up, so I can see the shared spine art, Timber Wolf, Nova Cat, I suspect. I find a well chosen system is the system that fits best with the story you want to tell. I think that if you're going to talk about systems you almost have to talk about the story you want to tell with it. Take this as an example, it's the best one I have at the moment. I want to run a fairly hard science, hard military campaign. For that I've chosen the Elite Dangerous RPG system. Yeah, pen and paper system. How it talks about ships, colonies, stations, microgravity, the rules for vehicle combat, chases, spaceship combat, chases, are the same too. All of that works together to help me build towards that theme. Compare it to this, a game requiring two groups, one is the infiltration team, the investigations unit. The other is the tactical, threat response unit. One will be doing the shooting when things get a bit too close, a bit nasty. For that, I've chosen to use the Spycraft 1.0 system. Yeah, it's old, it's not without flaws, but how it talks about espionage, how it names things, the rules it has as a base include chases. Covert equipment, bugs and more. That's not to say either is a bad system, it's just the wrong system for the story I want to tell. The Elite Dangerous system is not what I want for the Spycraft game. The opposite is true, too. When I'd use Atomic Highway, is different to the above, is different to BattleTech, is different to Star Trek Adventures.
the assertion (around 1:53) that rules knowledge can be used to enhance stories makes me feel seen. I love systems and analysis and often face ridicule because people think that means I'm a munchkin or a min-maxer. And while that's not entirely wrong? that's not all there is to it.
I love this series and the hosts, but I made it to the end of the video and still don't understand what exactly is meant by "crunch." As a life-long D&D player I've never heard it before.
@skrrt Hmm... I mean, she looks and sounds like a girl, and guessing was born female. Or as they would refer to it, "assigned female at birth". But honestly, you don't have to label yourself nonbinary, just because you choose to keep an androgynous haircut, or any reason for that matter. Doing so just adds an unnecessary complication to your life, and life is complicated enough as it is. But, to each their own, I guess.
Corvo Attano nonbinary is not the same as androgynous. one is aesthetic the other is in your head. If you can’t respect Sam’s pronouns maybe don’t watch their content, I’m sure Sam and the rest of g&s wouldn’t want you here anyway
@@Waterflame Trying to suppress discussion on the matter doesn't help, it only increases tension/toxicity/etc. I could express my theories/deductions for why people want to create more labels and/or standards, but if people are not willing to listen and understand, I will not discuss the matter any further.
It a reference to crunching numbers. D&D 3rd edition was crunchy because there was a lot of math involved as opposed to 5th edition where they removed a lot of the extraneous bonuses and modifier and replaced them with things like advantage/disadvantage.
I love Sam and Eric so much. They are both amazing human beings, and I want nothing but the best for them both. 💙💙💙💙💙
I would love to see Sam De Leve go over the Mekton system. Holy cow!
Sam's suggestion of making a character to learn a system really helps. For example, when I first started looking at running a Star Trek: Adventures game, I made a balanced crew spread of 5 or 6 sample characters, both to have them if a role goes unfilled by my party and trial the mechanics through a self-guided trial session before I had players in front of me.
The envy corrodes me. I want people around me to discus game systems.
Sam De Leve nailed the point to describe what you want and allow the GM "who rules" explain how it happens or doesn't happen.
Very helpful advice. I have always struggled with new game system rules. The best way for me is to simply play it and look up the rule as it comes up during play. Very similar to creating the characters.
What's weird is a friend is debating what game to run and asked me to look a few over to help them pick, and yes I did find myself turning right to the PC creation pages but that was by instinct Same here expresses a logical reason for what I did by instinct. Char creation is the best way to understand a system
Erm Sam no idea why I wrote Same I meant no insult to them
Eric and Sam is great, but were getting Sam and Amy Dallen next week? Yessssssssss
It's so refreshing to talk about RPGs and only have Dungeons and Dragons mentioned once 😩
the Song of Ice and Fire rpg has both an intricate regular combat and social combat system. I would love to see Eric run that.
I would love a video by Sam De Leve analyzing Fate Core and how some settings, like Mindjammer or Atomic Robo, have used its mechanics.
A good game-master can "Make it so!"
If you can master the combat aspects of a RPG, then you can usually figure out the system pretty easily.
Look at these amazing human beings!!! Yes.
Don't worry, Eric. I'll be happy to help you build 'Mechs.
Two of my favorite humans!!! 💚💚💚
Saaaaaaaaaam!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I'M EXCITED!
Bone dice? I think Annabella from Relics & Rarities needs to have a chat with Level Up Dice.
Oh building a proper BattleMech...... what period? Omni or straight chassis, pre Invasion (Just be careful, House Kurita/Draconis Combine actually had ER PPC's and Double Heat Sinks from memory, 3044 odd)? Or perhaps if you want to have some real fun, Jihad era. All the way down to the chassis, engine and frame, all the way up to the weapons and armour.
It's fun and it's awesome and it takes a lot of time. A proper Ace custom, can be fun.
I might have all the books lined up, so I can see the shared spine art, Timber Wolf, Nova Cat, I suspect.
I find a well chosen system is the system that fits best with the story you want to tell. I think that if you're going to talk about systems you almost have to talk about the story you want to tell with it.
Take this as an example, it's the best one I have at the moment.
I want to run a fairly hard science, hard military campaign. For that I've chosen the Elite Dangerous RPG system. Yeah, pen and paper system. How it talks about ships, colonies, stations, microgravity, the rules for vehicle combat, chases, spaceship combat, chases, are the same too. All of that works together to help me build towards that theme.
Compare it to this, a game requiring two groups, one is the infiltration team, the investigations unit. The other is the tactical, threat response unit. One will be doing the shooting when things get a bit too close, a bit nasty. For that, I've chosen to use the Spycraft 1.0 system. Yeah, it's old, it's not without flaws, but how it talks about espionage, how it names things, the rules it has as a base include chases. Covert equipment, bugs and more.
That's not to say either is a bad system, it's just the wrong system for the story I want to tell. The Elite Dangerous system is not what I want for the Spycraft game. The opposite is true, too.
When I'd use Atomic Highway, is different to the above, is different to BattleTech, is different to Star Trek Adventures.
3025... when men were men, and mechs ran hot. ;)
@@Linerunner99 So hot you could cook your lunch while you waited to cool down.
You had to do something with the time.
the assertion (around 1:53) that rules knowledge can be used to enhance stories makes me feel seen. I love systems and analysis and often face ridicule because people think that means I'm a munchkin or a min-maxer. And while that's not entirely wrong? that's not all there is to it.
I love them both so much
I love this series and the hosts, but I made it to the end of the video and still don't understand what exactly is meant by "crunch." As a life-long D&D player I've never heard it before.
David Wiley crunch is slang for describing a rules system that has a lot of rules. The more rules, the more crunchy it is.
@@nuculearbazooka Thx
I have always understood crunch as in "crunching numbers"
Please let Sam write all rulebooks in the world.
Sam is so cute
Sam is really pretty, and I actually like her haircut ❤ .
Corvo Attano Sam uses they/them pronouns as far as I know
@skrrt Hmm... I mean, she looks and sounds like a girl, and guessing was born female. Or as they would refer to it, "assigned female at birth". But honestly, you don't have to label yourself nonbinary, just because you choose to keep an androgynous haircut, or any reason for that matter. Doing so just adds an unnecessary complication to your life, and life is complicated enough as it is. But, to each their own, I guess.
@@metawolf987 Please respect that fact that Sam uses they/them pronouns, no matter the gender they were assigned at birth.
Corvo Attano nonbinary is not the same as androgynous. one is aesthetic the other is in your head.
If you can’t respect Sam’s pronouns maybe don’t watch their content, I’m sure Sam and the rest of g&s wouldn’t want you here anyway
@@Waterflame Trying to suppress discussion on the matter doesn't help, it only increases tension/toxicity/etc. I could express my theories/deductions for why people want to create more labels and/or standards, but if people are not willing to listen and understand, I will not discuss the matter any further.
They are just making up terms..
" crunching" really.
It's a term that has been used in game design for years, but okay.
It a reference to crunching numbers. D&D 3rd edition was crunchy because there was a lot of math involved as opposed to 5th edition where they removed a lot of the extraneous bonuses and modifier and replaced them with things like advantage/disadvantage.