The Power Of Trappings

While reading Rocks Fall, Everyone Dies, I ran across an interesting article (as happens more often then not) by Spenser Isdahl discussing how to change the feel of a campaign by removing specific classes from the game.  I was enjoying the thought of making some changes to my current Dungeons & Dragons game when my thoughts wandered to Savage Worlds (as we all know they tend to).  A basic design philosophy struck me:  in D&D, to change a setting you need to add to the world (be it new classes, feats, skills, weapons, etc), changing mechanics to get a new game.  In Savage Worlds, you modify the descriptions, or the trappings–no new crunch required.

Trappings can be powerful.  A veteran Savage GM understands this at an almost intrinsic level.  As we’ve discussed in our primer, a trapping is typically a change in description.  While a change in crunch can happen, it’s not required to get the feel of the game.  In Slipstream, for example, you can breath in space.  In Ravaged Earth, the Heroes just don’t die.  Neither one of these changes required a change in the rules. It’s simply noted in the description text and away we went.  One could even make changes to a spell such as Blast.  Do you want to set stuff on fire? Done.  Be so hot to melt stone? Done. You’ve only changed the description; the crunch hasn’t changed.  In D&D, these would have to be represented through different levels of spells.  Fireball could burn some wood, but melt stone? Maybe, if it was three levels higher.

With that being said, I still play both games; they satisfy different styles of play.  In Savage Worlds I get high flying hero action with a one-two punch of cool. In my D&D games I like that the heroes can withstand boat-loads of damage, and I enjoy having lots of crunch for my weapons and spells. Both of these satisfy my inner GM.  Besides even Pinnacle has said their game isn’t for everyone.

What’s your favorite trapping to employ? What’s your favorite campaign style that you’ve emulated?