# RPG A DAY 2024: RPG that's easy to use? tags: #thoughts #thoughts/RPGaDay/2024 ![[RPGaDAY2024-024x723.jpg]] This one is a pretty tough question. All told, what does "easy to use" really mean? - That it's easy to set up and tear down? - That it's quick and easy to make characters and get into a game, but the mechanics themselves are fairly complicated yet provide a good experience, which emulates whatever is being intended? - That it doesn't require a GM, so you can just throw and go? All of these things could be reasonable interpretations. If we go across the board and try to figure out something that hits all of those points, or at least as many as I can, I think I end up with the same answer every year, which is a little bit awkward: **[[Wushu]]**. ![[Wushu (logo).png]] Let's talk about why it *doesn't* answer yes to a couple of these questions important for my perspective, especially since I am putting it forward as the answer to the overall question. - *Is it GMless?* No, absolutely not. It is very much a GM-full experience. It requires someone in charge of the game to set the number of tokens that must be taken out to succeed within the context of the scene. We'll get back to this in a bit, but for now, it suffices to point out that it fails my third point up there. - *Does it have complicated mechanics at any level, which themselves improve the emulation of the game for any particular genre?* No. These are some of the most straightforward, simple, reasonable, logical mechanics that you will ever run into within the context of an RPG. They are almost *too* simple. As for the rest of it … Look, the game is absolutely free at this point. That means it wins on the cost against almost anything else you would like to line up.^[Given how much I have spent and continue to spend on RPGs, the fact that so many of the really good ones lately have been free is a little bit mind-blowing. That's possibly the topic for another thought.] The mechanics are *ridiculously* lightweight, and the cognitive load on the GM is likewise extremely light. You start with the assumption that whatever the players say the characters do — within the bounds of reason for everyone at the table — happens. They have dictated the fiction. That's what's on the table. No need to think about it. No need to really debate it unless someone has a completely reasonable objection that it is absolutely outside the bounds of what the character could do or what the physics of the world would allow. That's what happens. You only roll the dice to figure out how *effective* those really ended up being. That's it. That's the whole point of dice in **Wushu**. Does it take a lot of overhead to make this happen? No. Characters are made up of literally a handful of Traits which are broadly defined or very specifically defined as desired by the GM and the players. They receive a value between one and six. You go. You're ready to rock. If you're interested in seeing what that character creation actually looks like broken down step-by-step, I've done that. Check it out: **[[Character Creation Challenge 2024 - Day 01 - Wushu - Aelthorond, High Magus of Nardon|Character Creation Challenge 2024: Day 01 - Wushu :: Aelthorond, High Magus of Nardon]]** Fast, easy, gloriously fun. It's actually one of the few RPGs I would truthfully consider *running* as a GM, as it's written in the book, for a bunch of random people at a convention with absolutely *no prep*. Character creation takes 10 minutes on the back of a 3x5 card. Coming up with an idea is just a matter of figuring out something interesting for those characters to do. Then you walk them through the first couple of interactions which probably involves either someone swinging from a chandelier while slashing the heads off of orcs and goblins, and then doing a jig while they kick over a lantern that lights the inn on fire, or they're hanging out of a speeding vehicle with the door open, twisted around backwards, one hand on the steering wheel to hold them up and maneuver the vehicle, the other firing behind as their head grazes just above the asphalt, plugging guys straight through the left eye In the car behind them, causing it to run into a cabbage cart and then flip over and explode. That's the sort of things that someone can do on their *first turn* while playing **Wushu**. There aren't too many games you can say that about, which is a sad truth. We could use more. That's why **Wushu** is getting the nod this year as the continuing champion of my *RPG that's easy to use* award.