The Last Jedi shows a key thing about Rules Lite/ OSR play (no spoilers)

    I saw The Last Jedi over the weekend.  I have a lot of thoughts about the movie (and Star Wars in general), but the firestorm the movie ignited among the fans actually illustrated something about role-playing games.  So I can rant about Star Wars and sci-fi in movies if you really want me too, but for this post I'm talking RPG stuff.  I'm also going to avoid spoilers, I can actually make my point with a single scene from the beginning of the movie that is not key to the plot (the parts I'm going to describe at least).

    Okay, let's start with the scene as you see it in the movie.  There is a really big bad guy spaceship the good guys attack.  At first we see the usual X-Wings of the series, but then we see a new type of spaceship.  I don't know what they're called (don't remember it if the movie said it), but basically they are bombers.  They carry dozens of black spheres that they drop (as far as we can see) on the big bad guy ship and blow it up.  That's the scene.  Simple, right?

    Boy did that spark the flamewar, so to speak.  Every reviewer I've seen who describes it has asked the same thing: how do you drop bombs in space?  There is no gravity.  Yes, they are near a planet, but they are far away and there would only be micro-gravity, not enough to move the bombs very fast.  A few people claimed that the bombs were propelled by some kind of magnet-thingies.  That claim is false however - the movie does not show it.  A movie is a visual medium, it must show what is happening.  Some book written later cannot explain the movie, the movie must stand on its own and be judged on it's own.  It does not show the bombs being driven by anything other than gravity and no one even says (which is worse than showing, but at least would be in the movie) that the bombs are driven by anything other than gravity.  Everyone who blew up over this has a point, from what we know about physics that shouldn't work.  So the critics are right to criticize this decision.

    Thing is, the critics are also wrong.
   
    Something that people forget about Star Wars is that it is not a science fiction story.  Nope, sorry if that burst a bubble but it's the truth.  Star Wars is a fantasy story, it's all about magic and morality and not technology and society (which sci-fi is about, at heart).  The space combat from the first movie (A New Hope) was directly lifted from news footage of World War 2 airplanes.  Somewhere I once saw a video of WW2 black and white footage next to the Death Star attack, and they are almost shot for shot identical.  Lucas liked the WW2 dogfights and he created his space combat to look like that.  He did not create it to be physically accurate.  You want to see accurate space combat from what we know of engineering and physics?  Go watch Babylon 5 and the Star Furies.  That's physics.  That's science fiction.  Star Wars is fantasy.
    So, that bomber scene people are complaining about, it is totally correct and belongs in the movie.  It is exactly like the World War 2 bombers and screening fighters.  It is exactly what Star Wars was built on, from literally the first movie.  So the critics are wrong to criticize it.


    Okay, on to my role-playing point.  I grew up with early D&D, what the hip kids now call "old school" play (impetus for the OSR or 'old school renaissance').  I don't really like that kind of game though, I like more mechanics-heavy rules.  And I like them exactly because of what I've been watching in The Last Jedi reviews.  A mechanically-heavy system tries to define as many things as possible.  Doing this has that effect and needs that roll.  A "rules light" system relies on negotiation between the GM and the players.  Anything is possible in a rules light system, if we can agree that it should be possible.  That is the thing driving The Last Jedi hate towards this scene (and a lot of other things, but again I'm avoiding spoilers) - a difference in assumptions.  The haters of this scene assume there is gravity and physics and such - but the movie assumes it is WW2 in space.  Both are right, that's the thing about assumptions, they are not objective facts.  The Star Wars writers and creators are operating from their assumptions, as they are right to do.  And the haters are operating off their assumptions, as they too are right to do.  The trouble is that those assumptions don't align.  All this hatred (let the hate flow through you... sorry, couldn't resist any longer) is because of differing assumptions.
    And that, in my experience from playing old school games (back when they were just the only games around), is the dangerous thing to be mindful of when playing "rules light" games.  Assumptions become a lot more important, and you need the interpersonal skills to handle conflict resolution when assumptions conflict - because they will, sooner or later.  Hopefully your group all think along similar lines so the disagreements will be few and minor.  But maybe not.  Actually, hopefully the group has had a talk about assumptions and what they expect to be able to do or how the game world works.  Which is another reason I don't like games that ship without settings.  Having a description of the world and how that world works can get everyone's assumptions on the same page (or at least in the same chapter) and prevent conflicts before they happen.

    Not going to be a deep article, just something that struck me.  Be mindful of your assumptions in your games, "rules light" systems live or die by this, but all games have assumptions to some degree.  Talk about them with the other players and GM, not just assumptions about how the world works like magic and physics, but about how the story is going to go and how the characters should behave (some groups will like a player betraying the party for drama, some will flip out - you need to know which you're playing in before you do something like that).  Assumptions are inevitable, but the more we talk about them and work together, smoothing out conflicts instead of blowing up, the better our games will be.  At least, that's how it's been in my experience.  If your is different, leave a comment below, I love having my assumptions challenged !  :)  (not really of course, nobody sane likes that kind of thing, just knows it's necessary)