Listen to the Rain

Me, I got pulled into gaming because my friends wanted to play in my storyworld. AD&D was a kludge for that, but we were determined enough that it mostly worked.

It really seems like there were a lot of people who that was the case for--Forgotten Realms, Birthright (the AD&D setting), and Glorantha were all worldbuilding exercises for their creators before they become RPGs. I wonder if the increase in fanfiction's popularity has reduced the world->RPG pipeline--I have a friend who does a lot of freeform online RP with no rules necessary.

The only thing I really love about game statistics is the different-shaped dice and their probabilities. Complex tables are not my thing. But this is why we need different games. You'd have more fun with some miniature-inspired, detailed game engines

I do really love rules design for its own sake, trying to make the rules match my preferred mode of play. In the aforementioned Warlords of the Mushroom Kingdom game, I used a chassis of Exalted 2e and tweaked the rules trying to get a game where the players 1) understood that fights were dangerous and so did not choose violence as a first resort and were willing to run from battle but 2) won most of their battles without significant personal cost. It worked, so I count that a success.