Now I get it.

[Bankuei]

Ironic, that's exactly what I paid for :)  It's part of the same logic that got me to buy Over the Edge and Unknown Armies.  Good ideas that you can take to any game.

Chris

[Bailey]

<p>I totally understand how you feel.  I find that when I talk about innovation in game design, people think in terms of new background, or a system that is fundamentally the same as a previous system, just with different dice, or different skill/stat lists.  D20 is not different than Interlock, except in stats, dice, and skills.  Period.

I'd say that different stats, skills and dice do make a difference.  Teenagers From Outer Space's system isn't much different from others but it seperates social interactions into Cool (for handling your peers) and Respect For Authority.  It does make a lot of difference to me.

Of course I'm a system monkey who leans towards Simulationism mainly with a dash of the other two for texture.

[James V. West]

I think adding the essays to Sorcerer was a great idea. There just isn't anything out there to teach people to look at rp as something and not just keep on rolling dice and hanging out. Sorcerer does that.

In defense of rolling dice and hanging out, I don't think it's necessary to be an rpg theorist to have a good time, or even to be an effective game designer (in some cases). But having an uderstanding of how the medium works can do nothing but help you do both those things better.