Too much talk, not enough play

I've been thinking and talking about this stuff without playing enough. So I'm going to quit talking it for awhile, until I can manage to get some of my ideas into actual play and see what happens.

BTW: to the recent commenter... Thanks for the recommendations.

I've played Dogs in the Vineyard, but we didn't have a very good experience with it. And it doesn't really address the issues I've talked about recently. Its combat is too abstract and separates character action from the outcome too much, in my opinion.

I read Vincent's blog, but it sometimes gets too "deep" for me... the whole Forge thing sometimes feels like it's out in left-field and not really talking about the issues that the common folk deal with in roleplaying games. The recent talk about the important feature of the game not having mechanics is interesting (The Mountain Witch has no Loyalty mechanic, Dogs in the Vineyard has no Faith mechanic, even though these are very important themes in the game). A lthough Vincent seems to be trying really hard to make people figure out what he means instead of just telling them. ("Ron says make a cube with a missing corner, I say make a whirlwind... what do we mean by this? Have you attained Enlightenment yet, young Grasshopper?")

I've also got Trollbabe, but I haven't managed to read through it. I have zero interest in the setting (I bought it just to read the rules), and I find it hard reading to slog through. But I've gotten the impression that it isn't addressing what I'm concerned with either. I'll have to finish reading it soon.