Minutiae

 

One of the interesting contrasts in the Traveller community, and I will pull GURPS: Traveller into this discussion because it highlights the issue, is the "micro versus macro" topic.

Macro Games

Classic Traveller is a macro game. For all you care, there is one planet in a star system, the most important one listed in the UDP, and when you jump in you visit that. You don't worry that much about gravity, space stations, moons, other planets in the system, what the continents look like, what the safe jump distance is and if the star's gravity prevents jumping in near the planet, or any of that other low-level hard sci-fi detail. We don't worry about what the spaceport looks like, who the planet's leaders currently are, local customs and cultures, or much about anything else - this is all fluff, if it is there it is nice to have but not critical and it is not needed for play.

The universe is a large place, and if we get get bogged down in the details we will never go anywhere!

You see the same thing in B/X and D&D style games, there are parts of the game heavily abstracted because if we got bogged down in details no high fantasy would ever happen. The game would shift from adventure to some second-by-second combat simulator where having a metal pauldron on your left shoulder really matters then the goblin's spear targets a random hit location and you are left-facing them.

Ironically Forbidden Lands is more of a macro-level game as well. It does have resource tracking, but a lot of those systems are abstracted and the system is more of a macro-level game on the macro story level than the "3 arrows left in my quiver" sort of game. I get this feeling it tells a larger brush of events and history than does a game that depends on marching order and precise combat map positioning.

Micro Games

In a game where minutiae matters, such as GURPS, Aftermath, Space Master, Rolemaster or others - heck yeah I want a system layout that lists every planet, every moon, every space station in the system, who the locals are, their government, the current in-system conflicts, what companies are there, what the system's defense forces are like, a random space traffic chart, maps of the planets, data on the economy, any wars or major events going on, what each planet produces, and on and on.

I want to be low level because I want to immerse myself in this universe!

The more detailed games have that assumption, where if you are tracking every kilogram of weight on every character, adjusting their casual and combat loadouts, and designing their skills and abilities down to the last character point - you want detail. The game runs on details. The game thrives when you get immersed in not only your character, but also the world you are in.

In some ways, especially in combat and the rules around feats, actions, and interrupts, D&D 3.5 was more of a micro-game, and D&D 4 especially so with powers and positioning.

I can see how players can get tired of all the detail, and games like GURPS or Rolemaster can be a chore to slog through and get working. It is like a phone or tablet with so many user options things are not simple anymore, while you have incredible options and power available for power users, the average user who just wants a phone that works can get turned off quickly. Even I get tired of the detail - I love it - but there is a point where if all I am doing is shuffling rules and choices there is little room left for story or anything compelling me to actually play.

But it is cool to know there is a mineral rich asteroid floating in low orbit of a low-density gas giant on the outer edge of the system, and you find an abandoned research facility on it not in any system records and the adventure begins...

Variant Games

That, for me, is the appeal of very low-level sci fi, and you see a variant of this in the Alien horror RPG as well. That game has macro-ized rules in places, but micro in the places where the horror is - the characters, what they carry, their stress levels, and where they are in a station are critically important. When the bad stuff happens, the game gets micro quick. In the day-to-day cargo hauling, space business and travel, it stays macro as it should.

Micro games can macro if you hand-wave away a lot of stuff too, like using GURPS to play Traveller and never getting that deep into the details. The question becomes, how deep do you want to go in the areas of the game that DO go micro? Do you even need that level of detail? It is nice to be able to sim second-by-second combat and know all the small things, but is that important for the story you are telling and the game you are running? If you crave the details, go micro and relish the game's low-level expressive power.

If all you care about is story and the large sweeping arcs of narrative, stay macro and do not waste your time with games that are a lot of low-level work for little narrative return. If you love the details, pick a favorite game that gives you what you crave and dive in. Nothing is "better" than the other, it is just personal preference.

Design Matters

Ultimately this is the game designer's job, what parts of the game are micro (and where the focus of the fun is), and what parts stay macro for ease of play and to reduce focus. When we played Car Wars we came up with a pretty cool "tire design" system. Yes, tire design. You could custom design your tires. You could put sidewall armor on radials, customize the tread, add internal run-flat support, and all sorts of cool features.

We could design the tires that came with the game and they came out perfect. Wow!

We had some cool tires on some cars and none of them mattered for the most part. Were they cool? Heck yeah! Did they matter to story? Very, very rarely. We ended up shelving it and just going with the standard tires for the most part, as that type of detail did not add anything to the stories we were telling.

It was the perfect case of adding detail where we thought it mattered, but it ultimately didn't and the game was better without it. Unless you are playing a game where you run a tire company, seriously, buy the ones on the shelf.

The game survived without tire design. It was minutiae and honestly, added detail to an area that wasn't that important. Some games on my shelf I still see this here and there, where some cool subsystem is still in the game yet adds very little.

Depends on the Game, Group, and Mood

Also, I have different moods, ones where I crave the detail, and others where I could care less and want a larger swath of story. Groups are like this too, and they can have preferences on how macro or micro a game should be given their tastes and the genre they are interested in. new players to tabletop gaming should probably start with more macro games, and as their tastes develop, go wherever they wish. Some will want to get into detail. Others just like story and covering everything in a more abstract way.

There are times I absolutely love immersion, and that includes rules and detail.

There are others I just want story and the large sweeping arc without the tiny details.

There are even others when I want to play with "story mechanic games" like FATE or Genesys.

Genesys I currently have out and I am playing with right now.