Unpopular opinions go here

[Tony Vargas]

Big Model is just GNS with even less intuitive phrases - Story Now, Step on Up, Right to Dream - that have even more convoluted esoteric meanings... is best as I can remember it now?

This is the unpopular opinions thread, so I guess it's the right place.

TTRPGs suffer from a terrible tendency to stretch the meaning of RPG until it prettymuch loses meaning. As always, I blame D&D. In this instance, D&D is maybe not even really an RPG, but because it's considered the first RPG, definitions of RPG stretch, distort, and derange themselves to include it, even if it was designed as a 70s wargame at a small scale. Similarly, because, in D&D, non-combat (other than magic) was so under-developed DMs for so long, and players substituted improv, RPG gets stretched to include essentially improv theatre or 'storytelling.' And that leads to Roll v Roll, which leads to Threefold Theory, which leads to GNS, which leads to the Big Model, which leads to the Dark Side ...

 

[payn]

Tolkien's middle Earth, not that interesting.

 

[Reynard]

Tolkien's middle Earth, not that interesting.

I think people think that when they don't dig in.

 

[Hex08]

I think people think that when they don't dig in.

I tried to read the Lord of the RIngs books 3 times. Once as a kid, once in my 20s and once in my early 40s and the furthest I got was halfway through the first book. It wasn't that I didn't try to dig in, they were just boring. I read a wide variety of books; some are easy reads some are more weighty but still enjoyable. Not everyone is going to enjoy the same stuff because not everyone does, or should, have the same taste.

 

[Reynard]

I tried to read the Lord of the RIngs books 3 times. Once as a kid, once in my 20s and once in my early 40s and the furthest I got was halfway through the first book. It wasn't that I didn't try to dig in, they were just boring. I read a wide variety of books; some are easy reads some are more weighty but still enjoyable. Not everyone is going to enjoy the same stuff because not everyone does, or should, have the same taste.

I did not say anything about people "liking" LotR. I was responding to the assertion that Middle Earth "isn't that interesting." That is a shallow take from people that don't take the time to really pay attention to the setting.

That you personally can't get "into" the books says literally nothing about anything other than your preferences for the writing style.

 

[overgeeked]

I tried to read the Lord of the RIngs books 3 times. Once as a kid, once in my 20s and once in my early 40s and the furthest I got was halfway through the first book. It wasn't that I didn't try to dig in, they were just boring. I read a wide variety of books; some are easy reads some are more weighty but still enjoyable. Not everyone is going to enjoy the same stuff because not everyone does, or should, have the same taste.

Lord of the Rings is one of the few series I’ve forced myself to read. I love a lot of the messages and bits of dialog and some actual scenes. But damn did JRRT need an editor. You could cut the page count in half and not really miss anything. That said. I watch Peter Jackson’s extended DVD set about once a year. Really dig the world and the fantasy. Just bounced off JRRT’s writing.

 

[Hex08]

I did not say anything about people "liking" LotR. I was responding to the assertion that Middle Earth "isn't that interesting." That is a shallow take from people that don't take the time to really pay attention to the setting.

That you personally can't get "into" the books says literally nothing about anything other than your preferences for the writing style.

I guess I should clarify, I didn't find the books interesting. That's what I was trying to express when I said they were boring (to me). It's also not a shallow take. Once again, if I can paraphrase myself, not everyone is going to, or should, find the same things interesting.

 

[Guest 7042500]

People who don't like Lord of the Rings have tiny dinkies.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

People who don't like Lord of the Rings have tiny dinkies.

Mod Note:

Even in jest, that’s pushing ENWorld’s rules of decorum. Don’t make similar comments in the future.

 

[Aldarc]

I think people think that when they don't dig in.

I think people think that when they naturally have diverging tastes and opinions from yours.