Campbell
Relaxed Intensity
Traditional/mainstream RPGs are definitely flexible from the perspective of GM storytelling or collaborative storytelling. Basically any mode of play that depends on a certain amount of pre-play or active curation at the table from either the GM or the group as a whole. That does not make them especially flexible overall from my perspective. Just well suited to their intended purpose.
What they make pretty much impossible in my experience are pretty much any mode of play that depend on a lack of active curation at the table. That require players have the ability to push hard for their characters' agendas. Where the entire point of play is the dance between audience and author or where the integrity of the challenge space is incredibly important to express and test player skill.
I don't think any mode of play deserves to be put on a pedestal. That's what the flexibility argument does in my opinion. It elevates RPGs as a vehicle for storytelling over the approach described in Play Passionately and skilled play of the fiction/game. A game that requires me to perform functions and take responsibility for things I would rather not be responsible for cannot really be especially flexible. Can it?
What they make pretty much impossible in my experience are pretty much any mode of play that depend on a lack of active curation at the table. That require players have the ability to push hard for their characters' agendas. Where the entire point of play is the dance between audience and author or where the integrity of the challenge space is incredibly important to express and test player skill.
I don't think any mode of play deserves to be put on a pedestal. That's what the flexibility argument does in my opinion. It elevates RPGs as a vehicle for storytelling over the approach described in Play Passionately and skilled play of the fiction/game. A game that requires me to perform functions and take responsibility for things I would rather not be responsible for cannot really be especially flexible. Can it?