If there's one game where stat differences are justified, what game would that be?
- Thread starter CapnZapp
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Humans help define and reinforce their moral and ethical positions via their stories. The idea that stories are not reality, and therefore should have no influence on the real world, ignores much of the purpose of human storytelling - and flies in the face of how good stories have significant emotional impact on people.
"Grown-ups," are the people on the planet who do the most senseless harm to other people. Grown-ups throw around accusations that others are emotionally immature, for example.
That aside, I think you need to better support the idea that perpetuating the same-old stereotypes laid out decades (even centuries) ago is somehow mentally challenging.
It would seem to me that the state of maturity is really defined by discernment - knowing the difference between "can" and "should", being able to see when an element could be done, but honestly, doesn't add anything of real value to the system.
Again - perpetuating the stereotypes of the past decades is going to generate *new* ideas? Use of stat limits to support gender stereotypes looks more like retreading of *old* ideas and perspectives, to the point of it really being use of cliches. Especially in something like Conan, with is 1) old, and 2) nearly a cliche in and of itself, and 3) isn't known for its intellectual and philosophical depth.
Ratskinner
Adventurer
I guess I just don't see the point.
I question the value of D&D-style stats in general (especially randomly generated), but really, why bother with the racial/gender modifiers? You wanna play Brienne of Tarth or Red Sonja...or the one Dextrous and Charming Dwarf in Stone Keep...go nuts.
If the players at a given table want to emulate a particular set of prejudices, etc. then they can do that. No need to bake it into the rules.
I question the value of D&D-style stats in general (especially randomly generated), but really, why bother with the racial/gender modifiers? You wanna play Brienne of Tarth or Red Sonja...or the one Dextrous and Charming Dwarf in Stone Keep...go nuts.
If the players at a given table want to emulate a particular set of prejudices, etc. then they can do that. No need to bake it into the rules.
[MENTION=12731]CapnZapp[/MENTION] didn't say that's how things are iRL. To the contrary,
The phrase this world referst to the imagined world of the RPG, not real life.
I doubt I would play the game that CapnZapp posits. I do play RPGs which, as part of their presentation of mediaeval life, note the significance of certain gender distinctions (Burning Wheel has some lifepaths that are women only; Prince Valiant has a discussion of assumed gender roles, and how this might bear on the incorporation of women PCs into the game). I agree with the suggestion by you and [MENTION=23240]steenan[/MENTION] that what CapnZapp is looking for would probably be better achieved by having gendered lifepaths or gendered "playbooks" (to use the PbtA terminology). In a D&D-type game, this would be gendered classes.
Mazes and Minotaurs is a semi-spoofy OSR-ish RPG that does this, with its women-only amazons and men-only barbarians and spearman. I have no idead how many people actually play it.
I
Immortal Sun
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That's your take on it. Yes I could be wrong. You also could be wrong. Zapp didn't reply to my post (or actually anything since then) so I'll leave it to them at this point to clarify.
Frankly, I'm far more interested in the value he feels this adds to the game.
Not from an in-world setting perspective as Nagol posts, you can resolve that by limiting classes. If you want to be a Fighter, you're a man. If you want to be a Sorcerer you're a woman. The end result will be physically strong male characters and physically weak female characters, without having to add special sex-based modifiers. Maybe in this world a woman can still be a rogue, or a monk, but since those classes emphasize stats other than strength as primary (at least in D&D in general) you'll still end up with generally the same result.
So I'm mainly curious about what he thinks it adds to the actual mechanical capital-"G" Game.
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By this you're meaning not just gendered roles/classes/playbooks, but sex-based stat penalties?
My guess - from the discussion of Conan in the OP - is that [MENTION=12731]CapnZapp[/MENTION] wants the play experience that would result from gendered classes/playbooks, but (1) isn't too familar with a wide range of RPGs beyond a certain sort of D&D, and (2) has a certain sort of "simulationist" sensibility that leads to a preference for process-driven mechanics (men are stronger, so give them a stat mod) rather than just cutting to the chase and having gendered classes/playbooks.
I
Immortal Sun
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I assume as much as well. So I understand what personal value this adds for him.
The larger question is what value this adds to the game, from the not-him gamer POV. Like, if some player who likes TTRPGs (and lets assume, has a similar mindset) saw "Zapp's RPG" on the shelf, and read about how this kind of material is included, how would value be added for that person over a system that says "Be whatever sex you want!" How does Potential Player here choose between these two games? The game that says "You can play a buff fighter!" or the game that says "Women suck at fighting!"
In principle, I think it offers the same as any genre/setting-focused RPG.
Burning Wheel makes it easier to play a pseudo-European game than a pseudo-Asian one. (And the designer even comments on this in the rulebook, noting that some lifepaths will probably have to be changed if the group wants an East Asian flavoured game.) That's a limitation of the game, but it also yields a sense of authenticity - because of the obsessive detail of the lifepaths - that one doesn't get from a more generic FRPG.
Or to take an obviously literary example, The One Ring promises (and by reputation seems to deliver) a JRRT-focused experience that isn't so reliably delivered by a game of (eg) generic D&DD-ish wizards, halflings who can be bards just as easily as "burglars", etc.
Whether there's as much market demand for an "authentic" buff barbarian and seductive sorcereress game as there is for mediaval fantasy or Middle Earth is another question. You'd obviously need to find the right pitch, and I think a degree of self-consciousness and deliberate pulp-y retro-ness would have to be part of that.
But in a thread not too long ago on these boards I had posters telling me that Gygax's random harlot table in his DMG is all in good fun and only a prude would think that it detracts from the game - so I think the potential market might be there!
GrahamWills
Hero
When we create a game world (or a book, or movie, or whatever) we don't define everything. Some things we care about and some things we do not. So when I run a game of 3:16, I am being very explicit that I don't really care about having characters differentiated by how good they are at skills. I really only care about fighting, and not-fighting.
So when you elect to make a mechanical difference between men and women, you are stating that this is something that you are about, and you want players to care about. You are also forcing people who might want to play a non-binary character into a particular choice. So the big question you should ask is: Why do I want to highlight this?. Why do I want to enforce a stereotype? -- irrespective of the accuracy or not of that stereotype. Another way of thinking about it is to ask yourself "If I dropped this rule, would it make a big difference?"
For your example Conan game, do you really think it would make a difference if you dropped the rule? I'd guess most people who want to play a Conan game are going to naturally create characters that feel like they might be Howardian -- in other words the premise of the campaign pretty much covers the rule. The only people who are likely not to follow the rule would be players who are unhappy with the premise of the game (in which case, you have issues already) or people who are generally happy, but find something grating. You might have a person who doesn't want to overtly display gender and plays a robed, mysterious magician (Thoth-Amon of the Ring style). Does it harm the game to allow that? Is it better to say "You can't do that because rules" or to say "OK, give it a go, but remember that in Conan's world, gender is a big issue".
Summarizing, a rule is meant to make people pay attention, decide and to enforce a point of view. It's probably better simply to depend on the premise of the game.
So when you elect to make a mechanical difference between men and women, you are stating that this is something that you are about, and you want players to care about. You are also forcing people who might want to play a non-binary character into a particular choice. So the big question you should ask is: Why do I want to highlight this?. Why do I want to enforce a stereotype? -- irrespective of the accuracy or not of that stereotype. Another way of thinking about it is to ask yourself "If I dropped this rule, would it make a big difference?"
For your example Conan game, do you really think it would make a difference if you dropped the rule? I'd guess most people who want to play a Conan game are going to naturally create characters that feel like they might be Howardian -- in other words the premise of the campaign pretty much covers the rule. The only people who are likely not to follow the rule would be players who are unhappy with the premise of the game (in which case, you have issues already) or people who are generally happy, but find something grating. You might have a person who doesn't want to overtly display gender and plays a robed, mysterious magician (Thoth-Amon of the Ring style). Does it harm the game to allow that? Is it better to say "You can't do that because rules" or to say "OK, give it a go, but remember that in Conan's world, gender is a big issue".
Summarizing, a rule is meant to make people pay attention, decide and to enforce a point of view. It's probably better simply to depend on the premise of the game.
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