Recently, the call went out on ENWorld for ENnie judges, and like a moth drawn to a flame, or like a geek drawn to a huge and unending pile of D20 products, I signed up.

I positioned myself as the guy who grew up playing Storyteller, Earthdawn, and Amber. The guy who likes story-oriented games. The guy who represents all those people who don't play games involving kicking down doors and killing 10 orcs in a 10x10 room. However, I'm not willing to commit to saying exactly where I am on the GNS scale.

I suppose I'm gamist. I love characters who kick ass. When playing D&D, my gamism tends to express itself in min-maxing the heck out of my concept.

I suppose I might be narrativist. I love story. However, I'm not interested in having too many metagaming devices for player control over the story.

I tentatively identify myself as simulationist. Except I'm not a simulationist interested in realism... I'm a simulationist interested in simulating genre, or the GM's vision of the game world, or a character in a story.

My question, then, is what I should I be looking for in D20 games to recognize? Is it good story ideas? Is it stuff I can use? As someone interested in indie games, but picks up the occasional D20 product, what do you look for? I'm positioning myself to reflect the eclectic taste, which is itself hard to represent. Any thoughts on the matter will be appreciated.

What Aaron Allston called a Genre Fiend?

Doctor Xero

Well, you obviously have some interest in D20 products. I can't imagine reading at ENWorld because I really don't see any point in the system--and since you apparently do, you see value there.

What is that value?

This is not a question for you to answer to me; it's a question for you to answer for yourself. What is it that makes D20 a good system? Why would anyone play it at all?

Once you've got the answer to that question, you probably have the foundation for deciding what makes a good D20 product. It would be something that genuinely stretches D20 in a way that makes it better, particularly better in ways in which it is already good. That is, if you like playing D20, you will probably love playing X, because it really enhances these aspects of D20.

That's what I would say, anyway. After all, if there's any sense to such an award at all, it should be given to products that genuinely stand out for the reasons that make the award make sense.

--M. J. Young

The way I see it, there are two separate tensions in D&D (and by extension, D20).

D&D relies heavily on player empowerment by giving players lots of choices and options for increasing the power level of their character with regards to destroying enemies and overcoming challenges. This is becomes even important in a game where the players and GM are playing against each other. Note that the many rules in D&D governing environmental effects and similar situations also empower players.

This is in direct contrast to the nar approach of empowering players by giving them control over the direction of the story itself. Note that at least one recent RPG.net thread was entitled "narrativism: the munchkin's new clothes."

To put it plainly, as a player, I find a lot of value in products that empower me further and give me ideas for additional character concepts, up to the point where the game is no longer challenging or interesting. New character concepts also become more useful in games where the players and GM are playing against each other, since the casualty rate of characters is likely to be higher.

As a GM, I find value in products that reduce my prep time, and offer me ideas for interesting encounters, treasures, and storylines. I sometimes find the player empowerment angle to be mildly problematic. I also dislike new power subsystems, especially baroque ones (think Gamma World D20). There are already enough complicated subsystems in D&D (and D20), and I don't want to have to worry about any more interactions between them.

D20 is a good system because it handles the gamist experience pretty well. There are tools to empower players, and there are solid guidelines on how to create challenging (but not too challenging) encounters for players to overcome. And unlike Rune, you don't have to play a Viking. There's also a lot of support for it, including a number of different attempts to shoehorn it into different styles of play.

Is it fair and reasonable for me, if I am a judge, to celebrate and promote those attempts to shoehorn D20 into a different style of play, one that I prefer, or should I be trying to look at what D20 does best, and promote the products that make D20 better at what it does best?

In my opinion, you should think twice about rewarding products that bring the words "attempt" and "shoehorn" to mind. Are they really going to promote the kind of play you're interested in, or are they going to turn people off to that kind of play, either because they can't achieve what they're trying to do due to adhering to the trappings of d20-ness, or because they're such thin extrapolations of d20 that buyers won't see the d20 goodness they expect in a d20 product?

Suppose you were judging annual awards for cars, and noticed that several models of newly invented flying cars were being offered.

Model #1 performs reasonably on the road, but it barely flies; getting it off the ground is difficult, which is just as well because once in the air it tends to crash a lot.

Model #2 is a high-performance aircraft; unfortunately on the ground it gets two miles per gallon, uses jet fuel only, costs a million dollars, and is not street-legal in any state.

Should #1 be rewarded (as an automobile, remember) because it attempts to fly, even though it's poor at it? I woudn't think so. If it performs really well as a car, then the ability to sometimes fly might be considered a plus (takes the worry out of driving off cliffs and such), but if it's a mediocre car and the number of awards are limited, it doesn't rate. How about #2? No, it's not really a car at all; let the people giving out awards for aircraft consider it.

On the other hand, if there's a model 3 out there, that is really a car and really flies well -- that is, a role playing product that really maintains the strengths of d20 and really facilitates extending play successfully in new directions (not just "attempts" or "shoehorns") -- then reward it.

- Walt

M. J. Young wrote:
This is not a question for you to answer to me; it's a question for you to answer for yourself. What is it that makes D20 a good system? Why would anyone play it at all?