Which RPG features great writing in my opinion?
I'm going to try and separate the writing from the mechanics. Although it's hard, because they are often so intertwined.
There's writing to convey the game setting, for setting specific books at least. In game writing, you're also trying to convey the mechanics in a comprehensible way.
There should be enough setting material for readers to get a feel for not just the genre, but the tone of the game. To borrow some terms from a superhero game; is it street level, stopping thugs and muggers? Is it citywide, stopping robberies some but mostly dealing with disaster-like events or supervillains? Or country wide? Worldwide? Interstellar? Inter-planar? Or does the game handle different levels of threat, and it's up to the players and GM to set it?
Or is it deadly serious in tone, full of angst and gravitas, or lighthearted and even silly? We used to joke that White Wolf's Changeling wasn't in the World of Darkness, it was too whimsical. It was in the world of dimly lit places.
Is there a enough fiction to give a voice to the kind of people you'd expect to play or encounter? Is there so much fiction, the reader's eye just skims it?
Even if the mechanics are unwieldy and arcane, they can be communicated well. Or the mechanics might be as smooth as melted butter, but the writing feels like swallowing dry salt.
Dresden Files did an incredible job of capturing the feel of the books' characters and settings, both in language and game mechanics. The fiction pieces, side bars, and 'handwritten comments' added to that feel.
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