jdrakeh
Front Range Warlock
If such a product existed, I would champion it. The vast majority of players (or, for that matter, gamers) that I know, both online and off...
If everybody involved in a game is ignorant of genre conventions, the separation of OOC and IC status, and similar things - great fun will be had. The problem is that many publishers have taken it upon themselves to inform the GM, but not other players. This upsets the balance.
I can directly trace most of my frustration with games, gaming, and gamers back to the point in time that I developed a firm grasp on genre, genre conventions, story continuity, pacing, etc - and my fellow players did not. At all.
All of a sudden, I saw the potential for dramtic mysteries, epic romance amongst the stars, pulp adventure in the vein of 1930s radio serials, and so on. My fellow players still couldn't see past their characters as simple stat blocks or conduits for wish fulfillment.
Me: "I've got a great idea for a game about masked avengers in 1930s New York!"
Them: "Cool! That means we get to kill gangsters!"
Me: "You can play heroes in the vein of The Shadow, Doc Savage, or even Batman!"
Them: "Sweet! We'll play a group of robotic ninja!"
And so on... pretty much every conversation about a game ended up like that. Of the fifty or so gamers that I spent a long time with in Topeka, only my friends Norm, Roger, and Lenny seemed to have a firm grasp on genre and stuff... and, unsurprisingly, they were the other 'go to guys' for GMing (and all shared my frustrations).
Save the sanity of myself and others like me. Please, please, please re-balance the scales. Teach players the importance of genre conventions, dispel the fallacy that the written rule is Gospel, explain the difference between assuming a role and moving a pawn on a game board. Do these things and I shall follow you to the ends of the Earth!
- Have zero understanding of what genre is, let alone what playing a 'playing a genre appropriate character' or 'acting in genre' might mean.
- Draw no distinction between out of character knowledge and in-character knowledge, nor do many fully understand the difference between the two states of OOC and IC.
- Have an all or nothing mind set when it comes to rules, charging that you must use all of the rules in a game (including those implicitly labeled as optional) or none of them.
If everybody involved in a game is ignorant of genre conventions, the separation of OOC and IC status, and similar things - great fun will be had. The problem is that many publishers have taken it upon themselves to inform the GM, but not other players. This upsets the balance.
I can directly trace most of my frustration with games, gaming, and gamers back to the point in time that I developed a firm grasp on genre, genre conventions, story continuity, pacing, etc - and my fellow players did not. At all.
All of a sudden, I saw the potential for dramtic mysteries, epic romance amongst the stars, pulp adventure in the vein of 1930s radio serials, and so on. My fellow players still couldn't see past their characters as simple stat blocks or conduits for wish fulfillment.
Me: "I've got a great idea for a game about masked avengers in 1930s New York!"
Them: "Cool! That means we get to kill gangsters!"
Me: "You can play heroes in the vein of The Shadow, Doc Savage, or even Batman!"
Them: "Sweet! We'll play a group of robotic ninja!"
And so on... pretty much every conversation about a game ended up like that. Of the fifty or so gamers that I spent a long time with in Topeka, only my friends Norm, Roger, and Lenny seemed to have a firm grasp on genre and stuff... and, unsurprisingly, they were the other 'go to guys' for GMing (and all shared my frustrations).
Save the sanity of myself and others like me. Please, please, please re-balance the scales. Teach players the importance of genre conventions, dispel the fallacy that the written rule is Gospel, explain the difference between assuming a role and moving a pawn on a game board. Do these things and I shall follow you to the ends of the Earth!