D&D General Styles of D&D Play

[FrogReaver]

That's been a problem in the community. The forcing of preferences on others. Especially when doing so and not helping people enjoy your preferences with guidance.

Let me say it this way - if people would stop telling me Freeform is bad (aka forcing their preferences on me) then I wouldn’t even be talking about why Freeform is good.

 

[Micah Sweet]

Why? Medieval Europe at the height of the Medieval Period (e.g. near the peak of the Medieval Warm Period) had a population around 100 million, of which approximately 1-2% were in the priesthood. Add in Paladins, since in 3e they worked the same way but would not be classified as priests in IRL terms, and you probably get a minimum of 2%. That's two million divine casters, just for one corner of the world. Even if the world overall averaged only half of that (so 1% of population being priests), the estimated global population of Earth in 1300 was between 360 and 430 million, so 3.6-4.3 million divine spellcasters.

So yes. I stand by what I said. The surveillance theocracy would be crippling to actually doing anything.

I imagine actual clerics with spells to be a small percentage of the clergy in total, so no, not millions of clerics.

 

[FrogReaver]

Yet funnily enough the very next poster not only understood what I meant but meaningfully responded to it.

By sidestepping the whole analogy part.

But in the interests of communication let me clarify.

Your analogy is one true wayism. You are saying that the man’s health is supported by the fact that he doesn’t have a vehicle. Which is true.

That was my sum total claim from the analogy. Thanks for agreeing.

But it is then extended because of various claims in this thread that the lack of mechanics in a system equates to support. And any suggestion that we add optional mechanics to give a different kind of support is immediately shouted down as completely unnecessary because lack of mechanics is in itself all the support needed.

Because your different kind of support is an attempt to take freeform elements out of the game. That’s diametrically opposed to my preferences.

Now if you’re like me and you think that the lack of mechanics is actually not support, I get left entirely out in the cold.

I think someone here has to get left out in the cold when it comes to a single game. But with 2 games you can have all the things you want and I can have all the things I want (or close enough).

I’m not allowed to have a vehicle because if I have a vehicle that somehow means that the guy will no longer be healthy.

How you get to this from my positions and analogy makes no sense. When you start claiming a bunch of bad stuff follows from an analogy without showing your work, there’s not a good way to respond to that.

It’s one true wayism all the way through. This whole thread has been an exercise in one true wayism. Anything other than Freeform play is derided as rollplay and denounced as actively hurting the game.

That’s because you keep making proposals to remove elements of the thing others prefer. You get that right? It’s like You like chocolate ice cream as is and someone else wants to make it better for them by mixing it with strawberry. That’s not ever going to go over well when you tell them it should can mixed with strawberry by default and they can separate it out if the just want the chocolate.

Is that clearer?

The analogy part no. But the rest, yes. Thanks.

 

[Minigiant]

Let me say it this way - if people would stop telling me Freeform is bad (aka forcing their preferences on me) then I wouldn’t even be talking about why Freeform is good.

It's bad when the other side does it too/

 

[FrogReaver]

Key takeaway is - some people prefer Freeform roleplay (or mostly Freeform roleplay), and rules that govern situations people want to Freeform roleplay in actually do the opposite of supporting that preference.

 

[FrogReaver]

It's bad when the other side does it too/

Good! So how do you propose one defends their preferences without being accused of that?

 

[Aldarc]

Should we give D&D 5e a gold star for supporting freeform driving roleplay?

 

[Hussar]

People saying that they prefer freeform play is not deciding anything. It's simply declaring a preference, one that is held by the people I happen to play with.

Yes, because you haven't said anything about not wanting anything other than free form social interaction in the game. I must have imagined that. And imagined you repeatedly talking about how 4e and structured social interactions are uncreative "roll play".

Please. If people were simply saying that they prefer freeform gaming, this conversation would be a LOT shorter.

 

[Hussar]

X isn’t needed for me. I don’t see the point of X for me. Y is better for me.

Keep in mind this is with the backdrop of being told everything would be so much better if my preferences weren’t met.

Absolutely no one has said that. NO one has even suggested that free form play be somehow removed from the game. I'm not even sure how you'd actually do that since free form play by definition is ignoring any existing rules (whether those rules exist or not) in favor of ... free form play.

I can, however, find repeated quotes telling me that my preferences must never be met in 5e D&D because meeting my preferences would be bad for the game.

 

[Hussar]

Let me say it this way - if people would stop telling me Freeform is bad (aka forcing their preferences on me) then I wouldn’t even be talking about why Freeform is good.

Quote please.

Show me where anyone has said Freeform play is bad. At most, people have asked that structured play be added IN ADDITION to freeform play.