I’m super trad. I basically run Braunsteins, and my last game is more or less Organized Crime Braunstein with NPCs, and that is the kind of game I enjoy. Said that, I feel I can contribute to only one way: the dreaded subsystem might be fun.

Often they happen because people feel the need to make rules because of the gaps. But sometimes they happen because a player wants a toy, and the Referee obliges. If the result is more fun and more engaged players, I can’t see any negatives.

As example Paul brought up livestock. I’ve done it with horses for a player that was really keen, for this specific PC, to breed amazing horses during downtime. So I wrote some horsebreeding rules and put them on the blog.As a result the player is satisfied, the other players have a rooster of horses to choose from, and everything seems better off. Done this way it’s only upsides.

Any other way, unless the game is about that (g&bs has a heist subsystem and threaten mechanics) i find it mostly cringeworthy. The rules have no reason to be there if they are not used.