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General Tabletop Discussion
*TTRPGs General
Approaches to prep in RPGing - GMs, players, and what play is *about*
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<blockquote data-quote="Manbearcat" data-source="post: 8983850" data-attributes="member: 6696971"><p>Good deal! Thanks for clarifying.</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p><strong>On prep being (or not being) onerous:</strong></p><p></p><p>This one is wholly GM-specific and not much more to say than that. One person's burden is another person's joy. I've certainly got idiosyncratic joys in my life that plenty (or most) of folks would find burdensome to the point of "cost outweighing the benefits."</p><p></p><p><strong>On prep generating an outsized effect on play (when compared to other inputs):</strong></p><p></p><p>My position on this isn't well-loved in the D&D community, but I'm sticking to it because of the preponderance of evidence (within the hobby and outside of the hobby). At the population level (I'm not speaking to any given individual), the more effort/time/emotion people pour into a work or enterprise (particularly one that is fundamentally a vessel for social interaction), the more they want that enterprise to be displayed, shared, and appreciated.</p><p></p><p>That doesn't mean that every single person will succumb to this impulse nor does it mean that every single person who succumbs to this impulse will ensure that their creation has an outsized effect on play. But its a feature/bug of the human operating system and general biology (which transcends gaming) that the more energy budget one devotes to something, there will be a conscious or rote expectation of "cashing out" to ensure the trade-off of such an expenditure was worth it.</p><p></p><p><strong>On Setting Tourism:</strong></p><p></p><p>When I use the term Setting Tourism, I'm folding in the following properties for play:</p><p></p><p>* High resolution setting sufficient to "tour" in the first place.</p><p></p><p>* Play where the density of conflict-neutral content vastly supersedes (or overwrites totally) aggressive situation-framing and protagonism-framed (a trajectory of play dictated by player-authored, PC dramatic need) and protagonism-demanding conflict.</p><p></p><p>* The overall shape, pace, and zoom of play follows from the above and is considerably more relaxed, informal, and serially tight/close-up compared with alternatives.</p><p></p><p>* When conflict does find its way to center-stage, the premise of the conflict will feature "setting-as-protagonist" (which often spotlights a fundamental NPC whereby foiling their dramatic need is the point of play; see Strahd & Ravenloft), often (though not always) canonical or paradigmatic setting of an established and beloved IP.</p><p></p><p>* Overwhelmingly, the participants of a game that features Setting Tourism are expecting this sort of play (this isn't an "ambush"), because they're excited to tour a beloved setting with well-known places, NPCs, mythology, canon, themes, paradigm or they're excited to explore a new world where a trusted creative has labored intensely over just such an imagined place precisely to cater to those interests.</p><p></p><p></p><p>So Setting Tourism is equal parts "the point of play", equal parts "the orientation of the players and GMs to the playing (including pre-play)," and equal parts "the nature and process of the play itself." Its not an exact formula and will manifest at any given table with subtle difference, but those are the constituent parts of the play.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Manbearcat, post: 8983850, member: 6696971"] Good deal! Thanks for clarifying. [B]On prep being (or not being) onerous:[/B] This one is wholly GM-specific and not much more to say than that. One person's burden is another person's joy. I've certainly got idiosyncratic joys in my life that plenty (or most) of folks would find burdensome to the point of "cost outweighing the benefits." [B]On prep generating an outsized effect on play (when compared to other inputs):[/B] My position on this isn't well-loved in the D&D community, but I'm sticking to it because of the preponderance of evidence (within the hobby and outside of the hobby). At the population level (I'm not speaking to any given individual), the more effort/time/emotion people pour into a work or enterprise (particularly one that is fundamentally a vessel for social interaction), the more they want that enterprise to be displayed, shared, and appreciated. That doesn't mean that every single person will succumb to this impulse nor does it mean that every single person who succumbs to this impulse will ensure that their creation has an outsized effect on play. But its a feature/bug of the human operating system and general biology (which transcends gaming) that the more energy budget one devotes to something, there will be a conscious or rote expectation of "cashing out" to ensure the trade-off of such an expenditure was worth it. [B]On Setting Tourism:[/B] When I use the term Setting Tourism, I'm folding in the following properties for play: * High resolution setting sufficient to "tour" in the first place. * Play where the density of conflict-neutral content vastly supersedes (or overwrites totally) aggressive situation-framing and protagonism-framed (a trajectory of play dictated by player-authored, PC dramatic need) and protagonism-demanding conflict. * The overall shape, pace, and zoom of play follows from the above and is considerably more relaxed, informal, and serially tight/close-up compared with alternatives. * When conflict does find its way to center-stage, the premise of the conflict will feature "setting-as-protagonist" (which often spotlights a fundamental NPC whereby foiling their dramatic need is the point of play; see Strahd & Ravenloft), often (though not always) canonical or paradigmatic setting of an established and beloved IP. * Overwhelmingly, the participants of a game that features Setting Tourism are expecting this sort of play (this isn't an "ambush"), because they're excited to tour a beloved setting with well-known places, NPCs, mythology, canon, themes, paradigm or they're excited to explore a new world where a trusted creative has labored intensely over just such an imagined place precisely to cater to those interests. So Setting Tourism is equal parts "the point of play", equal parts "the orientation of the players and GMs to the playing (including pre-play)," and equal parts "the nature and process of the play itself." Its not an exact formula and will manifest at any given table with subtle difference, but those are the constituent parts of the play. [/QUOTE]
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