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Context Switching Paralysis, or Why we Will Always Have the Thief Debate
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<blockquote data-quote="billd91" data-source="post: 8750637" data-attributes="member: 3400"><p>I think the question of “what harm does it do“ is answered by “where do we go from here”? In the case of action moviemaking, it leads to the problem of topping what went before. You look at the Star Wars prequels, the Hobbit trilogy, and LotR and you see the damage it causes. Once Legolas jumped on the cave troll, then shield-surfed down the steps, the third movie is saying “well, we wowed the crowd twice, but we’ve done those things now” so they try to top the prior action with more spectacle (like the silly oliphant thing). Doing anything similar would just be ho hum. And this can eventually lead to the Hobbit trilogy of not enough story spread over too much movie runtime… and then fill in with action spectacle.</p><p></p><p>RPGs may not be quite the same, but Rule of Cool does lend itself to a sense of forced escalation because, while it may have been cool to do that thing once, it doesn’t really support that becoming a standard thing. Because if it’s a standard thing, it’s not doable under the Rule of Cool. This is, however, one area where narrative-oriented features may shine. With those, you’re not allowing exceptions to normal abilities because they‘re ”cool” and fresh. Those exceptions are built into the normal rules and are flexible and open enough to do what you need them to do. For example, Mutants and Masterminds allows PCs to use unpurchased power effects as “extra effort”. The player pushes their hero’s power in unplanned ways as part of the game system. It’s incredibly flexible but not allowable simply because it seems cool at the time. It’s an inherent feature and, yes, it allows you to do pretty cool things without leading to <strong>Top THAT</strong> escalation.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="billd91, post: 8750637, member: 3400"] I think the question of “what harm does it do“ is answered by “where do we go from here”? In the case of action moviemaking, it leads to the problem of topping what went before. You look at the Star Wars prequels, the Hobbit trilogy, and LotR and you see the damage it causes. Once Legolas jumped on the cave troll, then shield-surfed down the steps, the third movie is saying “well, we wowed the crowd twice, but we’ve done those things now” so they try to top the prior action with more spectacle (like the silly oliphant thing). Doing anything similar would just be ho hum. And this can eventually lead to the Hobbit trilogy of not enough story spread over too much movie runtime… and then fill in with action spectacle. RPGs may not be quite the same, but Rule of Cool does lend itself to a sense of forced escalation because, while it may have been cool to do that thing once, it doesn’t really support that becoming a standard thing. Because if it’s a standard thing, it’s not doable under the Rule of Cool. This is, however, one area where narrative-oriented features may shine. With those, you’re not allowing exceptions to normal abilities because they‘re ”cool” and fresh. Those exceptions are built into the normal rules and are flexible and open enough to do what you need them to do. For example, Mutants and Masterminds allows PCs to use unpurchased power effects as “extra effort”. The player pushes their hero’s power in unplanned ways as part of the game system. It’s incredibly flexible but not allowable simply because it seems cool at the time. It’s an inherent feature and, yes, it allows you to do pretty cool things without leading to [B]Top THAT[/B] escalation. [/QUOTE]
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