Post originally by Tim Gray at 2004-07-25 06:16:02
Converted from Phorums BB System

Make of this what you will. I played a couple of con games of HeroQuest yesterday and happened to make a comparison with SW today. Both games nod in the direction of simplicity, without making it the fundamental premise of the design. But the comparison shows how tactical SW is and puts it in closer proximity to D&D (for instance) than when one looks at it on its own.

The HQ con games were story-oriented. We never really got into a fight as such (though at one point two parties were trying to knock each other down), and we never used the extended contest rules. This worked fine, because the kind of game we were playing fit into this style.

So... for me it flags up a bit more clearly what SW is: namely, a generic ruleset with a strong element of tactics/combat but a cap on the level of detail.

A lot of one's impression depends what one compares it to. Compare to D&D, for instance, and if you like that kind of play but yearn for greater simplicity you're probably going to like SW. Compare it to other things, and those notable advantages will seem less prominent.