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What Hill Will You Die On?
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<blockquote data-quote="Celebrim" data-source="post: 9096472" data-attributes="member: 4937"><p>The rules are inescapably the physics of the game universe. </p><p></p><p>The same game and even the same session can meet multiple aesthetics of play simultaneously. </p><p></p><p>No game that can't meet multiple aesthetics of play is popular in the long run.</p><p></p><p>Hit points, classes, levels, spell slots, and armor as passive defense are a lot smarter mechanics than they are given credit for. </p><p></p><p>It's not wrong or an accident or an oversight that most game rules focus on physical combat even when the game is not ostensibly about physical combat, nor is it correct to develop complex rules around social interactions just because the game is intended to be about social interaction. (I think we are adjacent on that one.)</p><p></p><p>Physical and mental attributes of a character are fundamentally different from each other and can't be treated the same.</p><p></p><p>RPGs produce stories by some means as a critical part of what makes them an RPG; they are therefore tools for telling stories. (We're obviously way far apart on that, but I see no point in arguing it.)</p><p></p><p>The example of play is as important or more important than the rules of play, and unfortunately there has been very little progress among designers in well communicating the example of play. So much so that it's not clear we've made any progress since the 1980s.</p><p></p><p>A designer that leaves the details and the story up to you is useless, because they've left up to you everything that requires a lot of work. Do it yourself settings rules setting generators and so forth are all basically useless content. Ideas aren't even worth a penny. It's the implementation and realization of those ideas that matter.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Celebrim, post: 9096472, member: 4937"] The rules are inescapably the physics of the game universe. The same game and even the same session can meet multiple aesthetics of play simultaneously. No game that can't meet multiple aesthetics of play is popular in the long run. Hit points, classes, levels, spell slots, and armor as passive defense are a lot smarter mechanics than they are given credit for. It's not wrong or an accident or an oversight that most game rules focus on physical combat even when the game is not ostensibly about physical combat, nor is it correct to develop complex rules around social interactions just because the game is intended to be about social interaction. (I think we are adjacent on that one.) Physical and mental attributes of a character are fundamentally different from each other and can't be treated the same. RPGs produce stories by some means as a critical part of what makes them an RPG; they are therefore tools for telling stories. (We're obviously way far apart on that, but I see no point in arguing it.) The example of play is as important or more important than the rules of play, and unfortunately there has been very little progress among designers in well communicating the example of play. So much so that it's not clear we've made any progress since the 1980s. A designer that leaves the details and the story up to you is useless, because they've left up to you everything that requires a lot of work. Do it yourself settings rules setting generators and so forth are all basically useless content. Ideas aren't even worth a penny. It's the implementation and realization of those ideas that matter. [/QUOTE]
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