Menu
News
All News
Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
Pathfinder
Starfinder
Warhammer
2d20 System
Year Zero Engine
Industry News
Reviews
Dragon Reflections
Columns
Weekly Digests
Weekly News Digest
Freebies, Sales & Bundles
RPG Print News
RPG Crowdfunding News
Game Content
ENterplanetary DimENsions
Mythological Figures
Opinion
Worlds of Design
Peregrine's Next
RPG Evolution
Other Columns
From the Freelancing Frontline
Monster ENcyclopedia
WotC/TSR Alumni Look Back
4 Hours w/RSD (Ryan Dancey)
The Road to 3E (Jonathan Tweet)
Greenwood's Realms (Ed Greenwood)
Drawmij's TSR (Jim Ward)
Community
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Resources
Wiki
Pages
Latest activity
Media
New media
New comments
Search media
Downloads
Latest reviews
Search resources
EN Publishing
Store
EN5ider
Adventures in ZEITGEIST
Awfully Cheerful Engine
What's OLD is NEW
Judge Dredd & The Worlds Of 2000AD
War of the Burning Sky
Level Up: Advanced 5E
Events & Releases
Upcoming Events
Private Events
Featured Events
Socials!
Twitch
YouTube
Facebook (EN Publishing)
Facebook (EN World)
Twitter
Instagram
TikTok
Podcast
Features
Top 5 RPGs Compiled Charts 2004-Present
Adventure Game Industry Market Research Summary (RPGs) V1.0
Ryan Dancey: Acquiring TSR
Q&A With Gary Gygax
D&D Rules FAQs
TSR, WotC, & Paizo: A Comparative History
D&D Pronunciation Guide
Million Dollar TTRPG Kickstarters
Tabletop RPG Podcast Hall of Fame
Eric Noah's Unofficial D&D 3rd Edition News
D&D in the Mainstream
D&D & RPG History
About Morrus
Log in
Register
What's new
Search
Search
Search titles only
By:
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Menu
Log in
Register
Install the app
Install
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*Dungeons & Dragons
Monte Cook Leaves WotC - No Longer working on D&D Next [updated]
JavaScript is disabled. For a better experience, please enable JavaScript in your browser before proceeding.
You are using an out of date browser. It may not display this or other websites correctly.
You should upgrade or use an
alternative browser
.
Reply to thread
Message
<blockquote data-quote="Nyronus" data-source="post: 5892776" data-attributes="member: 93419"><p>Its been an while, and you're actually lucky I managed to find it. The article is not as terrible as I remember, but it still has serious issues.</p><p></p><p>It uses a very narrow and arbitrary issue (Should we give character mechanical incentive to play stereotypical characters?) as staging ground to suddenly discuss a very broad issue (What is the relationship between flavor and mechanics?). Up until the last few sentences its all about whether or not dwarves should get a +2 to hit with Axes because the fluff says their awesome with axes, where then it suddenly jumps to "Should the rules represent the flavor of the story?" which is a very complicated issue with a lot of nuance to it. It then boils down said really complex issue to a single Yes/No question phrased in such a way that most people who actually care about game design will pick the Yes answer. Which most did. Of course the rules should represent the story. Why else would we use rules to tell them if not for that purpose? The reason it offended me so much is that the nature of the connection between mechanics and narrative is a big edition war point between 4E and the people who hate it, with a lot of people strawmaning the concept of "re-fluffing" to mean that the rules shouldn't mean anything at all, as opposed to the actual idea in which the rules are recognized to be abstract enough that they could represent different events within the narrative without any difference in rules interaction, and then taking advantage of that by changing the fluff to be more fitting to your tastes without breaking the suspension of disbelief. So asking the question on whether or not mechanics should be connected to flavor, in such a loaded way, struck me as a deliberate attempt to wring polling numbers against 4E. Hence why I felt it was dishonest. Looking back on it now I'm not sure if it was an deliberate act of dishonestly so much as one of stupidity and really poor writing. But here's the article for you to judge.</p><p></p><p><a href="http://community.wizards.com/dndnext/blog/2012/01/20/mechanics_supporting_story" target="_blank">Whoops! Browser Settings Incompatible</a></p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Nyronus, post: 5892776, member: 93419"] Its been an while, and you're actually lucky I managed to find it. The article is not as terrible as I remember, but it still has serious issues. It uses a very narrow and arbitrary issue (Should we give character mechanical incentive to play stereotypical characters?) as staging ground to suddenly discuss a very broad issue (What is the relationship between flavor and mechanics?). Up until the last few sentences its all about whether or not dwarves should get a +2 to hit with Axes because the fluff says their awesome with axes, where then it suddenly jumps to "Should the rules represent the flavor of the story?" which is a very complicated issue with a lot of nuance to it. It then boils down said really complex issue to a single Yes/No question phrased in such a way that most people who actually care about game design will pick the Yes answer. Which most did. Of course the rules should represent the story. Why else would we use rules to tell them if not for that purpose? The reason it offended me so much is that the nature of the connection between mechanics and narrative is a big edition war point between 4E and the people who hate it, with a lot of people strawmaning the concept of "re-fluffing" to mean that the rules shouldn't mean anything at all, as opposed to the actual idea in which the rules are recognized to be abstract enough that they could represent different events within the narrative without any difference in rules interaction, and then taking advantage of that by changing the fluff to be more fitting to your tastes without breaking the suspension of disbelief. So asking the question on whether or not mechanics should be connected to flavor, in such a loaded way, struck me as a deliberate attempt to wring polling numbers against 4E. Hence why I felt it was dishonest. Looking back on it now I'm not sure if it was an deliberate act of dishonestly so much as one of stupidity and really poor writing. But here's the article for you to judge. [url=http://community.wizards.com/dndnext/blog/2012/01/20/mechanics_supporting_story]Whoops! Browser Settings Incompatible[/url] [/QUOTE]
Insert quotes…
Verification
Post reply
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*Dungeons & Dragons
Monte Cook Leaves WotC - No Longer working on D&D Next [updated]
Top