Mark Delsing no idea on 1. That’s my take.

2: Oh dumb shit like putting sacks inside of sacks inside of sacks. Or weapons that have objectively worse stats and nobody takes ’em because nobody gets beyond “I roll to hit.” Yeahhhh good luck with that halberd in this tiny corridor.

Neither of which are the key to any particular game’s “greatness” that I can think of off the top of my head. But that’s the essence of a Murphy’s Rule.

I think there were things in Exalted that jump out at me like this. I don’t know why I think that. It’s at the back of my head.

Or maybe like…oh okay. In Urban Shadows the Wizard has a power-up move. It’s very simple, just roll it and get some hold to blow on magic. There’s no upper limit on how often you can do it nor how long it might take. So you have to talk about what it costs, time and materials wise, to power up. Maybe it’s truly nothing, and the counterbalance is the chance of rolling a miss! Maybe it’s time. Maybe it involves total quiet, and anything less than that requires you Keep Your Cool. But it introduces an interesting conversation about just what the Wizard’s jam is all about. US is full of that stuff, starting from “Let It Out” and going forward.