The bulk of the Strange Brew rules can be thought of as a language or notation to describe people, places, objects and phenomena in a game setting. While most of the description will be in plain English (or other natural language), the description language lists those properties most likely to have an impact on other game objects or characters. In particular, the description language is focused on those activities where there is a conflict between characters, an obstacle the character must overcome, or a threat to a character's well-being. This language will be useful both for character generation (procedures for designing characters) and adventure, campaign, setting, and world design, creating the NPC's, creatures, technology, culture, organizations, objects, and special phenomena of the world and setting the characters inhabit.
The other components of the rules are closely related to the description language. There is an accounting system , that given a description of a character, object, etc., assigns it a numerical value. This value will correlate with how powerful the character or object is in gameworld terms. This can be used in adventure design to judge an approximate level of threat or challenge, or as a guide for character design. We will present the accounting system at the same time as the description language.
The narration system , or action resolution system, is used to determine the outcomes of events in the game. This system can be thought of as providing the semantics (meaning) of the description language. The description language tells you what types of interaction are possible between objects; the action resolution system gives a process for the narrator to determine the outcomes of these interactions.
The description system can be used hierarchically, in that one can first create a default description of a class of objects, and then describe the ways that an individual in the class differs from the default. Also, different packages or menus of abilities or properties can be created to guide and simplify design of individuals.
For example, say JRR is designing a world, Guy Gax is going to design a campaign for that world, and Ursula Gwen is going to design a character for the campaign. JRR decides, that, in addition to humans, his world will have many common human-like creatures, e.g., elves, dwarves, orks, goblins, and munchkins. In addition, some of these species have more than one culture, with differences in skills and abilities. For example, there are the Lake Men (traders), the Rangers (nomadic wilderness explorers with a common myth of noble ancestry), the Horse Riders, the wild men, and the Tower People; there are also the High elves, and the Forest elves; the Murder Orks and the Sneaky Orks. He uses the description system to describe the common features and skills of each of these cultures and species. He also puts in some notes about exceptional abilities that some rare individuals have: heriditary shape-shifting powers, wizards being the descendents of a lost race of near gods, beast talkers, rune carvers, and words of power.
Guy Gax takes his notes and makes more concrete plans for a campaign. He decides to center his campaign in the mixed Lake Man-munchkin dairy town of Brie, and starting from JRR's Lake Man and munchkin templates, he adds a few more skills to reflect local knowledge. He decides that orks, goblins, and wizards would not fit the tone of his game as player characters, but that humans from other cultures, dwarves, and elves, could be PC's; they wouldn't have any local knowledge, so they would start out as JRR described them. He decides that he'd like the players to have some of the less powerful special abilities as options, and also decides that he'd like more healing magic than JRR described, so he uses the system to define some power/skill packages for these abilities and for a profession of herbal healers. He also uses the accounting system as a way to balance different starting packages and special abilities between characters, and issues guidelines for beginning player characters.
Ursula then decides to play a local Munchkin herbalist with the ability to talk to rodents. She starts with the default culture and background Guy and JRR created for local munchkins. Then she adds some selections from the beast-speaker template Guy created, and some from the menu for herbal healers. She then personalizes her character description by making some changes from the defaults.
On the other hand, say Stanley is designing an "anything goes" superhero game set in an alternate version of the modern world. Since the changes in the gameworld from the real world that his player's are familiar with probably won't impact anything but allowable superpowers, and allowable superpowers are almost anything imaginable, Stanley doesn't create any cultural packages or power frameworks. He just gives guidelines for power levels and a description of the mood of the campaign, and lets the players design their own powers and skills specific to their characters. Stanley and the player will edit the character together, revising anything inconsistent with the gameworld or contrary to the mood of the campaign.
The first method of character creation is more work for the world and campaign designer. However, character design is easier, and the designer does not necessarily need to totally master the rules. On the other hand, her freedom in character design is somewhat limited. The second method allows almost any character; so to design a character with complicated abilities will take more effort and knowledge of the rules. "Gamist" players might enjoy the freedom to give their characters interesting abilities afforded by the second method, whereas "simulationist" players trying to get information about life in a strange gameworld might prefer the first.