How crunchy is it actually?
Hello everyone!
I’ve been reading Sanderson’s Cosmere work lately and as an avid TTRPG player (and mostly forever-GM), I took advantage of a visit to my friendly local game store for Free RPG Day and got myself the Stormlight Starter Set!
After reading through the rules, it seems to be pretty crunchy and rules-heavy, especially when it comes to combat (so many conditions to remember, like 17 possible different actions per turn in addition to what your character themself can do, etc). I have my fair share of experience with D&D (which this compares to the most, at first glance) but I have realized in the last few years that I simply enjoy rules-light, narrative-focused systems a lot more.
Is the Cosmere RPG as crunchy as it seems at first glance?
I know what some of you are gonna say: well you can GM it with a focus on the story and adjudicate situation based on vibes to run it anyway, but how is character progression in relations to that (there’s not much on that in the starter set)? I would hate to have my style of GMing leaving players feeling like the things they got for their level-up is too situational/useless!
TLDR: I like rules-light, narrative-focused games the most, is the Cosmere RPG gonna be too crunchy and rules-heavy for me?
Edit: Thank you everybody for all your answers! Will definitely try Bridge Nine and see how it feels!