Did I discover the Left Wing and Right Wing of D&D gaming styles?

[Numion]

I don't think what the original poster calls consistent, like Dragonlance, are really consistent in D&D rules. Or is it feasible to have ordinary castles and warfare with wizards around? A setting with medieval strappings like castles, knights, armies and such is pretty inconsistent when D&D magic is thrown in.

Another detriment to the discussion is Turanils determination to take the other sides argument to stupid levels of inconsistency. Is necessary that monks and paladins in the same game result in minotaurs having no rhyme or reason to their existence in an ancient tomb, with no food and with no lavatory to boot!

Seems like the old argument of "I'm more of a sophisticated and high-brow history simulationist, so I'll just poke fun at those who play D&D, the game". Including DL in the list of consistent campaign setting further erodes your argument - you're just lashing out at setting that are not your favorite. Nothing wrong with that, in principle, but don't expect people to recognize your 'discovery'.

 

[Dr. Strangemonkey]

Eh, I hope it's a little friendlier than that.

 

[Turanil]

I really hope it's a language issue that makes you come off so insulting. It's OK to have preferences in how you play, but that doesn't make people who like something else wrong, which is certainly what you're making it sound like.

I don't see where you see insults. I admit that I like to speak in provocating and colorful tones though, hoping it will be more funny to read.

One of my points in beginning this thread, is that I felt (after having read other threads) that there is two conceptions of gaming that are incompatible. By incompatible I mean that one gamer from one style will never understand the gamer from the other style (hence the Left Wing and Right Wing terms), and cannot but argue endlessly on some subjects. But now I better see (for having read all those posts) that it's not so much a problem of Forgotten Realms versus Strict 13th Century England. "Inclusionary vs. Exclusionary" types is also a good way to distinguish things. But that's not totally that too. I think there is something, a fundamental between two basic styles of gaming, but I cannot exactly "put my finger on it".

 

[hong]

I don't see where you see insults. I admit that I like to speak in provocating and colorful tones though, hoping it will be more funny to read.

Dear Turanil,

Please note that there is an art to not wearing pants in public.

j0r fr3nd,

 

[Turanil]

Please note that there is an art to not wearing pants in public.

Venerated Hong,

You clearly are the master of that delicate art, and I can but hope that in years of practices (and 9000 more posts) I may maybe (just maybe) reach the exquisite level of extraordinary skillfulness required to not wearing pants in public.

Turanil humbly (well, not so humble) bowing before the master.

 

[Sylevus]

There is not really a difference here. Sometimes goofy is appropriate, other times its not. If the majority of the group wants to be goofy, have fun. If you find yourself in the minority, find another group, or find a way to fit in. Too much drama over the right and wrong way. There is no Right way to play, just a right way to play with the folks you are with. If its not your cup of tea offer constructive advice, if you still can't get the right amount of sugar in your cup, shop elsewhere.

 

[Gez]

My homebrew is definitely Out-Of-This-World Cuisine. Like Keith Baker did for Eberron, my approach is not to recreate a med-fan setting using the tools provided (dragons, unicorns, beholders, undead, flumphs, elves, dwarves, monks, paladins, wizards, to recreate the 100-year war? are you kidding me?), but to use the tools provided to create a world that is internally consistent enough for it to be satisfying, completely exotic -- while at the same time subtly reminiscent of things from our own culture, myths, and all that.

As Mark Rein "Plonk" Hagen (how are you supposed to pronounce the dot, anyway?) said, creativity is hiding your sources. So, I've a complicated culture of esthete maffiosi with a snake fetish and very subtle 1001 Nights window dressing. At the same time, they're totally alien, being unlike anything from Earth, and yet easy to grasp because the individual components are all already part of our psyche. So, they seem plausible, despite being extravagantly implausible. Just like D&D magic.

I don't want to run either a single-course campaign setting (OA or Nyambe, strictly within a theme) nor a salad campaign setting (with a patchwork of real-world cultures). Instead, I pass everything through the mixer, so I get a cream soup. A single consistency, made of several different flavours, that are all cut in so tiny pieces and recombined in surprising way so they avoid the "Galahad Miyasashi, barbarian from the Frozen North" factor.

 

[Starglim]

Have you read Conan? R. E. Howard is as anachronistic as your World Cuisine example and less imaginative.

I prefer a setting that is self-consistent in culture, which you will very seldom find in the 20th century tradition of fantasy literature. So my vote would be 'neither one of your choices, because they're actually the same'.

 

[Buttercup]

How come nobody ever claims that the British have the best food?

Have you ever eaten British food?

 

[nerfherder]

Have you ever eaten British food?

I suppose it depends how you define "British food". Haggis? Game pie? Venison? Full English/Scottish breakfast? Sunday roast (usually beef, lamb or pork)? I'm not sure where the "boiled" meat came in - I don't know of anyone that does that. My parents have mentioned having to boil rationed meat during the war, but other than that...

With the influx of immigrants over the last century, most Brits now eat a huge amount of Indian and Chinese (Hong Kong) food . I only ate Haggis for the first time last weekend, and I'm 37, live within 100 miles of the Scottish border, and have visited Scotland over 50 times. If you ever visit Birmingham or Bradford, make sure you try an Indian. My favourite local restaurant is a place called "The Spice Cube", which is run by a British family that have lived here for 2 or 3 generations.

Over the last decade or so, Cookery programs have become very popular, with some of the more colourful chefs becoming celebrities (some of which you would gladly punch if you met them on the street - Jamie Oliver anyone?).

I guess what I'm trying to say is that British food is not what it was even 20 years ago, which is what most foreigners assume it is.

Now please excuse me while I nip off to buy a french baguette, spanish chorizo, greek olives and fresh orange juice from... probably South Africa.

Cheers,
Liam

P.S. to be slightly on topic, in order to maintain versimilitude, I tend to prefer games where the background is fairly well defined, and characters fit that background. Looking back, I think I probably fit in with Gez's view.