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<blockquote data-quote="(un)reason" data-source="post: 5973808" data-attributes="member: 27780"><p><strong><u>Dragon Issue 286: August 2001</u></strong></p><p></p><p></p><p>part 2/7</p><p></p><p></p><p>Up on a soapbox: And so Gary concludes his series on what we want in our roleplaying by talking about all the other possible elements that people have said they want. Most can be filed as subdivisions of the categories that he already suggested, while the social rewards of playing RPG's can be applied to any game with multiple players. Having a system for character advancement in game, however, is an important one that definitely deserves it's own category, since nearly all RPG's have it, and most other games with less continuity don't. Roleplaying's great strength, and weakness, is the sheer amount of depth you can create with it, and how hard that can become to keep track of. To get the payoff, you need to invest. And to get lots of people involved, you need to diversify. Really, it's not that surprising it isn't a more mainstream hobby, especially when there's so much competition. The best thing we can do to attract new people is to keep the existing fanbase from going toxic. After all, D&D grew pretty rapidly the first time around. If it weren't for the reputation of the existing fanbase, it might be able to do it again. You think that might be a good idea? </p><p></p><p></p><p>The dork tower crew go conventioneering. Will they get back alive and intact? What terrible stories will they have to tell? </p><p></p><p></p><p>The world of Shannara: To get all of us who haven't read the books started, here's a little geography and history primer. Since this series already has quite a few books, and Brooks isn't afraid of going multigenerational with his story, this takes a fair sized article. And it soon becomes apparent that while it may have started out with much the same ingredients as Tolkien: elves, dwarves, reluctant heroes, terrifying wraiths, mysterious spellcasters and dangerous magical items, it soon took it's own direction. Since there are regular skips of centuries between the books, and quite a lot of dangerous locations, there's plenty of room for a GM to create a game without the players feeling overshadowed by constant encounters with book characters, and their deeds. So it seems that this world probably is quite suited to D&D gaming, certainly moreso than Robin Hood was, and doing a special on it wasn't a bad idea at all for the magazine or the author. My skepticism is being won over, and I'm interested in seeing what the subsequent articles make of the world. </p><p></p><p></p><p>Elder druid: As we found last article, most D&D classes map into Shannara reasonably well. Druids, on the other hand, are quite different. They do have a little in common with 1st edition hierophants in that they use hibernating sleep to extend their lifespan. But other than that, their special abilities are quite distinct. Speaking all languages and perfect memory make them able to step outside their culture and become universal diplomats, while their ability to use magical fire, charge weapons to smite things, and supercharge themselves at the cost of their lifespan means they make decent straight combatants. (if not quite as effective as shapeshifted D&D druids) So this is a fairly powerful prestige class, but still not quite as good as a straight CoDzilla, and it's quirks may trip players up in an interesting way in the long run. It seems like it could be used in another game world without too many problems. </p><p></p><p></p><p>Heroes & Villains: Next we have the dramatis personae. Because of the multigenerational nature of the stories, only the villains get full-sized writeups, while the heroes only get familial ones, talking about their general personality traits, with lots of abbreviated statblocks. This means I find myself more interested in the villains and what drives them. If so much of the heroes personality traits are hereditary, then what does that say about free will around here? Are people destined to keep on going through the same challenges, and making the same mistakes? That would be terribly depressing, even if individually they generally win them. That's one of the things I found most annoying reading the bible, seeing subsequent generations forgetting the lessons God taught the previous ones, forcing him to smite them all over again. It's not really the kind of thing I want in my escapism, true to reality as it is.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="(un)reason, post: 5973808, member: 27780"] [B][U]Dragon Issue 286: August 2001[/U][/B] part 2/7 Up on a soapbox: And so Gary concludes his series on what we want in our roleplaying by talking about all the other possible elements that people have said they want. Most can be filed as subdivisions of the categories that he already suggested, while the social rewards of playing RPG's can be applied to any game with multiple players. Having a system for character advancement in game, however, is an important one that definitely deserves it's own category, since nearly all RPG's have it, and most other games with less continuity don't. Roleplaying's great strength, and weakness, is the sheer amount of depth you can create with it, and how hard that can become to keep track of. To get the payoff, you need to invest. And to get lots of people involved, you need to diversify. Really, it's not that surprising it isn't a more mainstream hobby, especially when there's so much competition. The best thing we can do to attract new people is to keep the existing fanbase from going toxic. After all, D&D grew pretty rapidly the first time around. If it weren't for the reputation of the existing fanbase, it might be able to do it again. You think that might be a good idea? The dork tower crew go conventioneering. Will they get back alive and intact? What terrible stories will they have to tell? The world of Shannara: To get all of us who haven't read the books started, here's a little geography and history primer. Since this series already has quite a few books, and Brooks isn't afraid of going multigenerational with his story, this takes a fair sized article. And it soon becomes apparent that while it may have started out with much the same ingredients as Tolkien: elves, dwarves, reluctant heroes, terrifying wraiths, mysterious spellcasters and dangerous magical items, it soon took it's own direction. Since there are regular skips of centuries between the books, and quite a lot of dangerous locations, there's plenty of room for a GM to create a game without the players feeling overshadowed by constant encounters with book characters, and their deeds. So it seems that this world probably is quite suited to D&D gaming, certainly moreso than Robin Hood was, and doing a special on it wasn't a bad idea at all for the magazine or the author. My skepticism is being won over, and I'm interested in seeing what the subsequent articles make of the world. Elder druid: As we found last article, most D&D classes map into Shannara reasonably well. Druids, on the other hand, are quite different. They do have a little in common with 1st edition hierophants in that they use hibernating sleep to extend their lifespan. But other than that, their special abilities are quite distinct. Speaking all languages and perfect memory make them able to step outside their culture and become universal diplomats, while their ability to use magical fire, charge weapons to smite things, and supercharge themselves at the cost of their lifespan means they make decent straight combatants. (if not quite as effective as shapeshifted D&D druids) So this is a fairly powerful prestige class, but still not quite as good as a straight CoDzilla, and it's quirks may trip players up in an interesting way in the long run. It seems like it could be used in another game world without too many problems. Heroes & Villains: Next we have the dramatis personae. Because of the multigenerational nature of the stories, only the villains get full-sized writeups, while the heroes only get familial ones, talking about their general personality traits, with lots of abbreviated statblocks. This means I find myself more interested in the villains and what drives them. If so much of the heroes personality traits are hereditary, then what does that say about free will around here? Are people destined to keep on going through the same challenges, and making the same mistakes? That would be terribly depressing, even if individually they generally win them. That's one of the things I found most annoying reading the bible, seeing subsequent generations forgetting the lessons God taught the previous ones, forcing him to smite them all over again. It's not really the kind of thing I want in my escapism, true to reality as it is. [/QUOTE]
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