Playing in the Blank Spaces of the System

[KYRON45]

It seems to me; and no i have no source....that there are an awful lot of people who like D&D but really are playing the wrong game.

 

[Aldarc]

I thought he said he wanted crunchy combat rules. But I haven't tracked down the actual interview yet so I could be wrong.

His exact words:

Combat is the part I’m the least interested in simulating through improvisational storytelling. So I need a game to do that for me, while I take care of emotions, relationships, character progression, because that naughty word is intuitive and I understand it well. I don’t intuitively understand how an arrow moves through a fictional airspace.

Of course 5e doesn't really say how an arrow moves through a fictional airspace either since it's just pass/fail about whether you hit or not. It doesn't care where the arrow hits or things like removing the arrow, bleeding, etc.

 

[Crimson Longinus]

I fully agree with Brennan on this. Social situations are my favourite part of RPGs for me, and I loathe systems with detailed social interaction rules. Sometimes less is more.

 

[borringman]

In general, I would think if you play a system and your resulting thought is, "I specifically want to do things that are not covered by these rules," odds are you are looking at a shoddy pile of rules, or at least, it's not the game you're looking for. Easier solution is, find a system that better suits your wants.

Am I missing the point?

 

[Reynard]

His exact words:

Of course 5e doesn't really say how an arrow moves through a fictional airspace either since it's just pass/fail about whether you hit or not. It doesn't care where the arrow hits or things like removing the arrow, bleeding, etc.

Right, but he did not say he does not like or want combat. He doesn't want to improvise combat rules. Those are different things.

 

[Reynard]

In general, I would think if you play a system and your resulting thought is, "I specifically want to do things that are not covered by these rules," odds are you are looking at a shoddy pile of rules. Easier solution is, find a better system.

Am I missing the point?

Yes. Almost entirely.

 

[borringman]

Well then.

 

[Reynard]

Well then.

He wants to improvise certain kinds of scenes over others -- trying to avoid the monster in Mothership, for example -- and so does not want the players to have "buttons" they can push on their character sheet for it. he wants them to actively engage with him on that part of play, because it is the most important part of play.

 

[borringman]

Social situations are my favourite part of RPGs for me, and I loathe systems with detailed social interaction rules.

That's understandable, but there's a flip side to this. I'd like to role-play social situations, but I have a social disability. I can't bluff or persuade any more than I can shoot fireballs from my fingertips. But I'll happily play a charismatic wizard on paper, because RPGs are all about pretending to be someone else.

Crunchy social mechanics help fill the gap between [certain] players and their characters. If you loathe them, that's fine. What exists can be ignored. On the other hand, it's trickier to wish mechanics that don't exist, into existence.

 

[Umbran]

I have not watched any of Brennan's work, so, I can't speak to it.

I think there is a bit of a logic fail if you say you want rules abstractions to allow you to "not think" about an aspect of the game, but you use a game in which those abstractions themselves require enough thought to slow down play and break immersion. D&D has combat abstractions, but those abstractions are still pretty complicated - not simplified enough to make it something you can "not think" about.

I am totally fine with him deciding that he wants a game that has gaps in spaces that he wants to insert his own form of control. But, that only works for folks who are really good at filling those gaps. The game at his table might be about what happens in the gaps, but the game as a published game isn't "about" things that seasoned professional improv actors can do in the gaps.