Search results

Are you using mechanics and system interchangeably here? If so, there is the problem. System includes ethos & principles (which necessarily entail goals/meta of play), structure, authority distribution, techniques, and mechanics (resolution, advancement, etc). Mechanics are the portion of a...

That's cool and good for you (sincere). But that isn't how things have gone down here on ENW. IMO, its one of the more weird (yet unsurprising) things I've seen in this hobby. This is my inventory of it: * Originator of thing x explains it (in long-form essay and in all manner of...

Yup. I mean. Edwards (the originator of the Narrativism essay) independently coming to the same conclusions that you and I did (I think he first read and played 4e like 2.5 years ago...I can't recall, I linked you the videos at the time) nearly 16 years ago is the killshot for the skepticism...

Not a ton of time, so I'm just going to hit the high, important notes as I see them as briefly as I can: 1) Mea culpa and retraction for the observation regarding "Black Lamps vs Lampblacks." Obviously, your ESL situation kills that tentative observation of mine stone-dead. 2) You already...

On "I don't see people playing super cautiously in other games either," I guess it really depends upon the game. I can tell you from 1984 through 1999 (and all the one shots since), every B/X Pawn Stance Dungeoncrawl game and every RC Hexcrawl game I ran featured developed and deployed S.O.P.s...

What work does the below do on play? That should be a bloody easy question to answer. And if your answer is "it doesn't do any work because system doesn't really matter and its all social contract (opt-in or opt-out of whatever...even when the rules explicitly say "play by the rules and use...

I don't have time to compose a post of any heft today, so here are a few words: * I would hope that everyone has their head around the differences between (a) the constraints and dynamics of initial conditions established during preplay ("I select Would Be Hero as my playbook and I answer the...

Negative, ts not. A "dump" in this conception is when the relevant climax, the falling action, and often (though not always) the denouement has already been resolved offscreen (or sometimes onscreen if its a crappy movie and they have to tell us what just happened because they were so poor in...

I realize that folks have different tolerance levels for generating and experiencing plot and character via exposition dump. There is no objective standard. However, here is the thing for me when it comes to movies, books/short stories, and TTRPGs. Exposition dumps as a vector for story is...