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Character play vs Player play
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<blockquote data-quote="Lanefan" data-source="post: 6420773" data-attributes="member: 29398"><p>Absolutely.</p><p></p><p>However, there's more to it. Some aspects of the game are going to be meta-game no matter what you do. Some other things in the game are (or should be) acting-in-character no matter what you do. This is fine. BUT, there are many, many instances that come up where either approach works close-to-equally well and thus it becomes a choice which to use; and as far as possible I'd like to (and admittedly often fail to) choose the in-character approach over the meta-game. Put another way, I'd like to let the game simulate such processes as it can, when it can; and meta-game the rest.</p><p></p><p>But with this you lose me. In true actor-stance (probably only achievable in a hypothetical full-on sandbox where everything is predetermined) the players-in-character are going to fail on a regular basis. They will miss adventure hooks. They will make wrong choices, or none at all. They will tackle something that is beyond them and get smoked. And they will manage every resource down to the nth degree because those resources are the only thing that's gonna keep 'em alive. Fail-backward is every bit as valid as fail-forward or just fail; meanwhile succeed-forward might not be guaranteed.</p><p></p><p>Also note that a game played in complete actor-stance is going to move at a crawl. Pleasant flip-side is that the world will be as rich and detailed as our own. Most of us, including your truly, don't run it this way...but we do let the pace set itself, and the PCs are not at all guaranteed to succeed (says he, who more than once has run a game where the party went out in the field but <em>never found the adventure</em>!)</p><p></p><p>On the other side, a game run in full-on pawn-stance will be fast-paced but to me would end up resembling the D&D Minis game with a few shreds of plot attached. Might float some boats, but not mine. <img src="data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7" class="smilie smilie--sprite smilie--sprite1" alt=":)" title="Smile :)" loading="lazy" data-shortname=":)" /></p><p></p><p>Lan-"metagaming; as if I ever post in-character on this board Eric's Grandma will probably choke on something"-efan</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Lanefan, post: 6420773, member: 29398"] Absolutely. However, there's more to it. Some aspects of the game are going to be meta-game no matter what you do. Some other things in the game are (or should be) acting-in-character no matter what you do. This is fine. BUT, there are many, many instances that come up where either approach works close-to-equally well and thus it becomes a choice which to use; and as far as possible I'd like to (and admittedly often fail to) choose the in-character approach over the meta-game. Put another way, I'd like to let the game simulate such processes as it can, when it can; and meta-game the rest. But with this you lose me. In true actor-stance (probably only achievable in a hypothetical full-on sandbox where everything is predetermined) the players-in-character are going to fail on a regular basis. They will miss adventure hooks. They will make wrong choices, or none at all. They will tackle something that is beyond them and get smoked. And they will manage every resource down to the nth degree because those resources are the only thing that's gonna keep 'em alive. Fail-backward is every bit as valid as fail-forward or just fail; meanwhile succeed-forward might not be guaranteed. Also note that a game played in complete actor-stance is going to move at a crawl. Pleasant flip-side is that the world will be as rich and detailed as our own. Most of us, including your truly, don't run it this way...but we do let the pace set itself, and the PCs are not at all guaranteed to succeed (says he, who more than once has run a game where the party went out in the field but [I]never found the adventure[/I]!) On the other side, a game run in full-on pawn-stance will be fast-paced but to me would end up resembling the D&D Minis game with a few shreds of plot attached. Might float some boats, but not mine. :) Lan-"metagaming; as if I ever post in-character on this board Eric's Grandma will probably choke on something"-efan [/QUOTE]
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