Is RPGing a *literary* endeavour?
- Thread starter pemerton
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lowkey13
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Orc and Pie, but without the orc and the pie?
Have players write Level 20 5E D&D characters, give them a mission briefing, have an NPC wizard send them to the Meta-Astral... which is uninhabited; and see how far they go, before they realize that the sandbox only contains sand (and the hazards from the table in the DMG).
If they spend almost the entire session optimizing their level 20 characters, then they only have the remaining time for a short window of non-opportunity.
Have players write Level 20 5E D&D characters, give them a mission briefing, have an NPC wizard send them to the Meta-Astral... which is uninhabited; and see how far they go, before they realize that the sandbox only contains sand (and the hazards from the table in the DMG).
If they spend almost the entire session optimizing their level 20 characters, then they only have the remaining time for a short window of non-opportunity.
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lowkey13
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Manbearcat
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Though sometimes, "just another creepy monster" - something new that the PCs (and players!) haven't seen or heard of before - is exactly what's required at the time. As in:
DM rolls give a random encounter, DM quickly thinks to self: "Hmmm. Do I throw yet another monster at 'em that they've seen and beaten a hundred times before, or do I dream up something brand new right now that suits the surroundings? Yeah, let's go for something new..."
And it doesn't even have to have anything to do with someone's sister in order to make it a) a threat and b) interesting, if the DM does it right.
Couple things:
1) In the spirit of this thread, I was trying to demonstrate that the framing of the creature is hierarchically more important than the words used to depict it (though again, they matter...they’re just lower in the hierarchy).
2) If you aren’t thematically framing a “bogeyman” as a bogeyman, then it seems pretty apt to point out that the situation the PCs are confronted with would be “bogeymanless”!
3) In your last sentence, what do “threat”, “interesting”, and “does it right” mean here in terms of confronting the PCs with a bogeyman trope? Are you just saying that you can present bogeymen in “bogeyman-neutral” ways that are still interesting threats? If so, that’s a pretty straight-forward claim. Of course you can. But the framing will have an extremely consequential impact on both the gamestate and on players’ emotional entanglement.
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lowkey13
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Manbearcat
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[MENTION=6799753]lowkey13[/MENTION]
I think you’re more or less saying what I said in my initial post in this thread:
Framing and understanding of dramatic device (arc composition and pacing, tropes) are fundamentally tethered. Insofar as they are (and they are), if one wants to fold “understanding and deftness in deployment of dramatic device” into “literary”, then we’re going to have a (self-imposed imo) communication impasse.
My take on the lead post is the distinction being drawn is with respect to specific skill in word usage (exposition and elocution or oratory skills broadly...or scripting and then speaking).
Again, that is on the hierarchy, but, IMO, much lower down than conflict/situation framing is (which, again, includes what I wrote above).
I think you’re more or less saying what I said in my initial post in this thread:
Framing and understanding of dramatic device (arc composition and pacing, tropes) are fundamentally tethered. Insofar as they are (and they are), if one wants to fold “understanding and deftness in deployment of dramatic device” into “literary”, then we’re going to have a (self-imposed imo) communication impasse.
My take on the lead post is the distinction being drawn is with respect to specific skill in word usage (exposition and elocution or oratory skills broadly...or scripting and then speaking).
Again, that is on the hierarchy, but, IMO, much lower down than conflict/situation framing is (which, again, includes what I wrote above).
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lowkey13
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Manbearcat
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This is so much more entangled than I ontrmdrf. EDIT - (Lol how about INTENDED. My phone autocorrected to ontrmdrf. Makes sense).
Ok, let me pose a simple question.
Is it possible to be very good at conflict framing (a) and resolution (b) yet be mediocre in words usage on the journey from a to b?
Is the inverse possible (poor at framing and resolution but beautiful prose/oratory)?
Ok, let me pose a simple question.
Is it possible to be very good at conflict framing (a) and resolution (b) yet be mediocre in words usage on the journey from a to b?
Is the inverse possible (poor at framing and resolution but beautiful prose/oratory)?
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lowkey13
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