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Stonetop RPG - Session post-mortems
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<blockquote data-quote="pemerton" data-source="post: 8581491" data-attributes="member: 42582"><p>I think skilled play can manifest in multiple ways.</p><p></p><p>4e demands skilled play in the sense that it is a technically dense game. If you don't get on top of the technicalities, you will never really get on top of 4e play (it seems to me). But once you do so, following the technicalities will lead you (in my view) into relatively light "story now" play.</p><p></p><p>Burning Wheel is technically probably a bit less demanding than 4e,but still pretty demanding. Once you master those technicalities, following them will lead you straight into pretty intense "story now" play.</p><p></p><p>It's possible to have story now play arise out of a system that is technically very "lite" and hence doesn't demand mastery in order to have the game play properly. Prince Valiant is my poster-child for this. Cthuhlu Dark, at least on some approaches to it, serves as another example.</p><p></p><p>And it's possible to have a system by technically rather "lite" but nevertheless demand a type of skilled play that foregrounds cooperation between PCs, expedience in decision-making, and overcoming challenges, such that "story now" play is unlikely to emerge. Moldvay Basic I think exemplifies this. (Even its spellcasting is technically pretty lite compared to modern versions of D&D.) </p><p></p><p>With Torchbearer, I see the same technical density as is present in 4e and BW. So it demands skilled play in that sense. But I also see the foregrounding of cooperation between PCs, and of expedience in decision-making (eg, and just as one example - the trinkets an orphan inherits from their parents have a value denominated in cash dice terms; the contrast with Burning Wheel emerges straight away at this point), and the focus on overcoming challenges, which makes me feel that it is closer to Moldvay Basic than to BW or 4e in terms of the play it is apt to engender.</p><p></p><p>Perhaps at higher levels, the player-side resources change enough to alter this in ways I'm not anticipating. Which would be interesting in itself, because I think classic D&D aspired to this but I'm not sure it ever pulled it off.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="pemerton, post: 8581491, member: 42582"] I think skilled play can manifest in multiple ways. 4e demands skilled play in the sense that it is a technically dense game. If you don't get on top of the technicalities, you will never really get on top of 4e play (it seems to me). But once you do so, following the technicalities will lead you (in my view) into relatively light "story now" play. Burning Wheel is technically probably a bit less demanding than 4e,but still pretty demanding. Once you master those technicalities, following them will lead you straight into pretty intense "story now" play. It's possible to have story now play arise out of a system that is technically very "lite" and hence doesn't demand mastery in order to have the game play properly. Prince Valiant is my poster-child for this. Cthuhlu Dark, at least on some approaches to it, serves as another example. And it's possible to have a system by technically rather "lite" but nevertheless demand a type of skilled play that foregrounds cooperation between PCs, expedience in decision-making, and overcoming challenges, such that "story now" play is unlikely to emerge. Moldvay Basic I think exemplifies this. (Even its spellcasting is technically pretty lite compared to modern versions of D&D.) With Torchbearer, I see the same technical density as is present in 4e and BW. So it demands skilled play in that sense. But I also see the foregrounding of cooperation between PCs, and of expedience in decision-making (eg, and just as one example - the trinkets an orphan inherits from their parents have a value denominated in cash dice terms; the contrast with Burning Wheel emerges straight away at this point), and the focus on overcoming challenges, which makes me feel that it is closer to Moldvay Basic than to BW or 4e in terms of the play it is apt to engender. Perhaps at higher levels, the player-side resources change enough to alter this in ways I'm not anticipating. Which would be interesting in itself, because I think classic D&D aspired to this but I'm not sure it ever pulled it off. [/QUOTE]
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