ok its 4am and i wanna chop shop as the cool kids say

lets talk about crunch.

rules do two things, often not at the same time: elide and make ritual. what do i mean by that? well,

rules elide when they let u not think about something. when a rule says "to throw an axe, roll 2d6..." it often takes away the responsibility you otherwise had, to decide what happens when you throw an axe. thats the rule's problem now. you input & output.

rules make ritual when they prompt and expand space. if were in a dungeon and i ask "How do you kill the big bad?" that makes ritual. I know my audience, most of you have written a game you or someone else called a ritual, or know someone who has. it means what u think.

heres the thing tho: nobody cares if u intended a rule to elide or ritualize. which function(s) a rule does depends on, like, context and the rules surrounding it and players and play and time and discourse &c&c. like, there arent "elider" rules, there are rules that elide.

but like, its not like u cant predict what a rule will do. like, cmon. for example, in my experience, longer rules tend to ritualize-- it's not elision when you're thinking about it for like, ten minutes! but like, card prompts tend to ritualize, too.

im not trying to like, sort individual rules right now tho, that seems arguey and for me, boring. those are just general examples, and u can think of counterexamples if you try hard.

also, this is not a dichotomy, im presenting it as such bc if i dont this thread will be boring. exercise to the reader: think of an experience where a rule...
--elided
--made ritual
--both
--neither
--couldnt meaningfully fit on a scale/graph of elision and ritual

the point tho, is i have a hypothesis:

if u hate crunch and someone else loves it, it COULD be because you think it elides and someone else thinks its a ritual, and its too long for you to properly see it as elisive.

thats all folks

if ur writing a comment please do not include the words:
--"system"
--"objective / subjective"
--"fruitful void"
--let's throw "bad" in there too

you can usually reword your comment to be either clearer or more directly applicable. thanku for caring.