(OK English isn't my first language so I'll apologize in in advance for any errors and I hope that they don't detract from anything I have to say.) this post on the "I Heart the Forge" thread I tell a bit about my experiences with your original essay "System Does Matter". When Vampire came in the early 90's, I felt it was something truly different. The original illustrated story, however bland and pompous it might seem today felt really evocaitve and mysterious then. I'd only played basic D&D until then and a few yers later after experinces with Warhammer and Call of Cthulhu, Mage came along and snatch my interest. I was only 19 when Vampire came out and in my early twenties when Mage came along, but I give some credit to the games that they made me think about philosophy and metaphysics (although they certainly wasn't my only sources) as a starting point and helped my transistion (form a somewhat agnostic christian to a sceptical atheist). I'm not really trying to tell my life's story her and this is certainly not the forum for this, but I want you guuys to understand that these games meant more to me than just roleplaying games. But in the late 90's I'd become thoroughly disillusioned with them. Whenever I played those games I felt that I was always playing something that was different from my expectations. After a while I identified games that I liked and those were mostly "rules tailored to setting " games although I couldn't really tdentify why they felt right. Ok that may be an exaggerration but I couldn't at least really identify why generic (or at least "storyteller" games) were wrong other than that they were not setting specific. Sowhere along the line I bough an indie-game that my FLGS had and a firend had mentioned. I won't say that Sorcerer had that much an impact on me, but for a couple of ideas (like Kickers) that I've only recently has begun to implement into my gaming. What had a lasting impact on me was the essay in the back. As I said in the other thread, I know that the Big Model has moved beyond much of your text in your original essay, but it was enough food for thought to make me break with my old gaming habits and identify my problems with those games I wanted to like but only brought me frustration. For that I'm grateful Ron and I feel that your original essay is more than good enough to make old gamers think in new ways.
HOT

Hi there,

Thank you! I appreciate the kind words.

Best, Ron