I always found it odd at the casual disdain that Wujcik had for rules. I don’t mean it as some sort of pejorative statement. One of my personal beliefs is never speak ill of the dead because they can no longer defend themselves. But he really enjoyed skirting, if not ignoring, rules.
It is what makes the rule system for Amber so frustrating. In game design, the rules must reflect the world, genre, tone, and relative level of realism the game is aiming for. The rules need to be able to account for everything that the game creator feels must be accounted for in order for the player to have the experience that the game designer wanted. That’s why I will always go back to the rules and try to find ways to justify it in the rules.
Heck, rules do more than just define a world. We cannot play games without rules. The rules define what the game ultimately is. To say “there are no rules” is to also say “there is no game.” There has to be something there in order for the game to work, at least on some level. The rules are there and agreed upon by all parties before the game begins. Without the rules, I cannot even imagine what there will be, but I know what won’t be there. The game of Amber.
-Michael Zack, Amber Diceless RPG Yahoo!Group
(Bolded emphasis mine.)
There are two reasons why this post struck me so strongly.
One, of course, is obvious: the truth of it. Wujick played fast and loose with the rules, and expects GMs of the Amber DRPG to do the same – and it’s frusterating beyond belief. He put the framework of a loose box around the world of Amber, and expected everyone to think outside of it. It relies entirely on good GM calls – and almost excludes new GMs by the very fact that it does.
Frusterating.
The second is not so obvious, but it should be. After all, what applies to the game also applies to the Family game, right?
The rules were written before you were born, aren’t actually written down on paper anywhere, and the other players are often terrible at explaining them to you… but there are rules.