The Window is an online universal RPG system available for free download at http://www.mimgames.com/window/. It advertises itself as a system ideal for serious role-players and a step forward in the evolution of the RPG industry. But does it deliver on all promises?

Personally, I have always felt that good role-playing depends far more upon the players and the setting than the system. No matter how cumbersome the burst-fire rules are or how many dice you have to roll to repair a starship drive, people who want rich, involving stories and involving, fleshed-out characters are generally going to be able to do so. If anything, hack-and-slash dungeon crawlers are the ones who have the biggest disadvantage in the terms of gaming options. A good RPer can pick out any book on the store shelf and build a story in it, while even the most determined min-maxer will have a tricky time blasting his way to omnipotence in something like Call of Cthulhu.

As it works out, The Window could probably work just about equally well for either type of player, depending on what kind of game the GM (known here as the Storyteller) wants to run. This games rule system is very simple and intuitive. Each trait or skill that a character has is represented by a die type (d8, d10, etc), and to perform an action successfully you must roll a target number or less on the appropriate die. Thats really all there is to it. Despite the designers statement that this is a game for veteran RPers, I think a simple system such as this would be a good way to get beginners into the hobby without deluging them in charts and percentages. On the other hand, it is definitely not something for novice Storytellers. The Storyteller is given lots of discretionary power in this system, which is only a good thing if he or she really knows their stuff.

What does matter to serious role-players is setting. To date, there is only one Window setting which is online–a conspiracy setting called The Stage, in which immortals, secret societies, government agencies and celestial beings struggle against each other in an attempt to control the destiny of the planet. Although The Stage could stand very well to have a little more coherent world data, its a neat setting with some cool possibilities. This world is probably my favorite part of The Window, and I look forward to seeing what the game will become when a few more like it are made.