Some "gonzo" role-playing game products are lots of fun to read as a potential referee. Written especially for GMs, they are just begging to be used in play by presenting all kinds of bizarre places and creatures and objects, but when it comes to actual play, the players don't have nearly as much fun. I think that some varieties of "gonzo" play-styles and aesthetics have the potential to block player fun as much as they can stimulate a sense of weird wonder. When a setting is strongly detached from reality, and becomes quite unpredictable, players cannot judge the outcomes of their choices. If you drink from a pool in a subterranean chamber, you might have to save versus poison or die, or you might raise a prime attribute. If there's no way for the players to figure out if something is beneficial or harmful, no clues, then the fun house ceases to be fun. Player choice becomes less meaningful when the effects of actions are not predictable in any way. A weird
Musings on table-top role-playing games today after spending a quarter century away from them.