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Legends & Lore 09/03 - RPG design philosophy
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<blockquote data-quote="pemerton" data-source="post: 6011644" data-attributes="member: 42582"><p>I'm not sure I follow all of your tightrope analogy, nor know entirely how to apply that to fantasy RPG play. But the bits I've quoted I think I follow.</p><p></p><p>A very prominent reason, it seems to me, why the imbalance is not exploited, is because players are not using the action resolution mechanics as a basis for advocating for their PCs. They're doing something else instead - perhaps they have a conception of how their PC is or what s/he might be that is formed independently and without much regard to the action resolution mechanics, and they play towards this ideal. It is often said that 3E plays fine if you approach it with a 2nd ed AD&D mindset. I think what I have just described would be one way of doing just that.</p><p></p><p>The enjoyment of the exploitation of the imbalance, and the hostility to "cute" or "rule lawyering" play, seem to be to often be associated with a certain attitude towards GM force - in particular, an expectation that the GM will use a lot of it to keep the game on track. Thus, the <em>GM</em> will exploit imbalance where necessary, and will keep a lide on those cute rule lawyers. This style of GMing is something I also associated with 2nd ed AD&D, and it is a natural fit with the approach to playing I described in the previous paragraph. Whereas players who want to advocate for their PC, and who want to draw on the action resolution mechanics to do this, are pretty naturally going to resent the GM changing, fudging or suspending those mechanics on the fly in order to preserve the "integrity" of the play experience.</p><p></p><p>It's hard to work out, in any detail, how people are playing from their message board posts. But on the long and continuing "How much should 5e aim at balance" thread, there are definitely posts criticising the importance of balance that give me something of a low player protagonism/high GM force vibe.</p><p></p><p>But if you assume that the GM is going to inject force from time to time as s/he sees fit - whether to change the nature of the imbalance, or to overturn it, or to exploit it - then a new type of non-boringness potentially emerges - namely, the non-boringness of GM-driven "story" play.</p><p></p><p>I'm not really into that, but it seems to me that many people are.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="pemerton, post: 6011644, member: 42582"] I'm not sure I follow all of your tightrope analogy, nor know entirely how to apply that to fantasy RPG play. But the bits I've quoted I think I follow. A very prominent reason, it seems to me, why the imbalance is not exploited, is because players are not using the action resolution mechanics as a basis for advocating for their PCs. They're doing something else instead - perhaps they have a conception of how their PC is or what s/he might be that is formed independently and without much regard to the action resolution mechanics, and they play towards this ideal. It is often said that 3E plays fine if you approach it with a 2nd ed AD&D mindset. I think what I have just described would be one way of doing just that. The enjoyment of the exploitation of the imbalance, and the hostility to "cute" or "rule lawyering" play, seem to be to often be associated with a certain attitude towards GM force - in particular, an expectation that the GM will use a lot of it to keep the game on track. Thus, the [I]GM[/I] will exploit imbalance where necessary, and will keep a lide on those cute rule lawyers. This style of GMing is something I also associated with 2nd ed AD&D, and it is a natural fit with the approach to playing I described in the previous paragraph. Whereas players who want to advocate for their PC, and who want to draw on the action resolution mechanics to do this, are pretty naturally going to resent the GM changing, fudging or suspending those mechanics on the fly in order to preserve the "integrity" of the play experience. It's hard to work out, in any detail, how people are playing from their message board posts. But on the long and continuing "How much should 5e aim at balance" thread, there are definitely posts criticising the importance of balance that give me something of a low player protagonism/high GM force vibe. But if you assume that the GM is going to inject force from time to time as s/he sees fit - whether to change the nature of the imbalance, or to overturn it, or to exploit it - then a new type of non-boringness potentially emerges - namely, the non-boringness of GM-driven "story" play. I'm not really into that, but it seems to me that many people are. [/QUOTE]
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