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The 10 Best Roleplaying Reads of January 2015!
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<blockquote data-quote="Celebrim" data-source="post: 7660085" data-attributes="member: 4937"><p>Great list.</p><p></p><p>Your #1 is a click bait article though. All the author's assumptions are wrong, starting with the fact that 'established branding' is the most obvious explanation for the continued dominance of an ever changing array of new 'incoherent' designs.</p><p></p><p>There is a simple answer: 'incoherent' is a polite term for badwrongfun. It's the idea of a purist that you shouldn't put peanut butter in your chocolate. The 'system matters' people have it wrong. The truth is no RPG can be truly successful in the long run unless it's design is 'incoherent', because real players or at least the vast majority of real players never bring a single agenda of play to the table. To be successful for more than a session or two, your game must support multiple agenda's of play simultaneously.</p><p></p><p>Contrast this obvious answer with the one the author ends up accepting, which is that people who like incoherent games have something subtly emotionally wrong with them. Basically, he blames the persistent devotion of every single popular system ever on the widespread insanity of the people who like them. He then goes on describe the play of 'incoherent' games as inherently juvenile and akin to sociopathy. He then in the mold of a true believer asks the big question, "I'm not denying the truth of our historicism, but really, I would have expected the inevitable to have happened a bit faster than it seems to be happening?" So he decides that the problem is that they need to stop marketing their games to the insane people who refuse to accept them and to seek out sane people that will accept the truth of their gospel.</p><p></p><p>Seriously people, question your assumptions from time to time. A bit of self-reflective doubt is a good thing.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Celebrim, post: 7660085, member: 4937"] Great list. Your #1 is a click bait article though. All the author's assumptions are wrong, starting with the fact that 'established branding' is the most obvious explanation for the continued dominance of an ever changing array of new 'incoherent' designs. There is a simple answer: 'incoherent' is a polite term for badwrongfun. It's the idea of a purist that you shouldn't put peanut butter in your chocolate. The 'system matters' people have it wrong. The truth is no RPG can be truly successful in the long run unless it's design is 'incoherent', because real players or at least the vast majority of real players never bring a single agenda of play to the table. To be successful for more than a session or two, your game must support multiple agenda's of play simultaneously. Contrast this obvious answer with the one the author ends up accepting, which is that people who like incoherent games have something subtly emotionally wrong with them. Basically, he blames the persistent devotion of every single popular system ever on the widespread insanity of the people who like them. He then goes on describe the play of 'incoherent' games as inherently juvenile and akin to sociopathy. He then in the mold of a true believer asks the big question, "I'm not denying the truth of our historicism, but really, I would have expected the inevitable to have happened a bit faster than it seems to be happening?" So he decides that the problem is that they need to stop marketing their games to the insane people who refuse to accept them and to seek out sane people that will accept the truth of their gospel. Seriously people, question your assumptions from time to time. A bit of self-reflective doubt is a good thing. [/QUOTE]
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