Microblog: Medium Spicy

There's this pattern that happens every time I go to a new falafel place: They'll ask me how spicy I'd like the sauce, I'll say "medium spicy" then they'll look at my pasty boyish frame that weighs 120 lbs wet and give me the mild sauce. I know this because of the four sauces available they'll give me the exact one that the previous customer who asked for "mild" got, and then later give me a look of surprise when I know to ask for banana peppers. After a few visits they'll start giving me the actual medium-spicy sauce and once I really get to know the place they'll goad me into trying the spiciest sauce they have, just to give it a shot. It's a pattern that's as predictable as it's been endearing.

Anyways this is about tabletop games.

Games like Flames of Orion or MAC Attack sit opposite of BattleTech on a scale of a certain kind of "spiciness" - Some call this crunch, some call this rules weight, but playing them it's not hard to see both the similarities and the radical departures. While I have critiques for all of these games (The arguably unnecessary mind bend that is BattleTech's GATOR, the ways in which Flames of Orion's random chaos could've been leaned more into, how I wish MAC Attack did more with how it handles initiative) I'd be lying if I said I didn't think these were good games. In fact most of my friction in playing these games tends to come from two core principles: The first is that I always assess if a game system's juice is worth the squeeze (eg is the time and complexity necessary for doing a game action worth it in interesting results and choices), and the second is that personally I find I most enjoy systems and mechanics that fall somewhere in the middle of these extremes.

We hear endless treaties about "rules-lite" or "crunch heavy" while being bombarded by subjective buzzwords like "tactical" "beer and pretzels" "competitive" that I have to ask myself "where's the medium salsa?" Where's the middle ground between 6 hour simulation heavy battles and half-hour swingy skirmishes where you bring all the fluff? Where's the game whose depth gives me just enough heat to burn without overwhelming the unique flavor? 

Anyways, I think I'm making a mech game again.