Play Is Paramount: Discuss

[Fenris-77]

What do you think the bright word here?

Organizational, maybe? Play is what connects all the parts we're talking about, for most people anyway.

 

[mmadsen]

"99 percent" feels like way too high a number. I do about an hour of prep for a 4 hour session, so that is 20% for me as GM. For players, one guesses very close to 100% is spent at the table. it certainly isn't spent learning their characters or the rules...

Most time and energy (and money) put into RPGs does not lead to an actual game with players around a table.

 

[Micah Sweet]

You can disagree all you like. I don't think that the idea that the core telos of games is to be played is even remotely controversial. Nor was this an assault on anyone's enjoyment of the non-play aspects of the hobby like worldbuilding, session prep, or whatever.

Maybe for some games that can be assumed, but I believe TTRPGS are a different beast, with a wide area of engagement that can eclipse table play in importance and enjoyment.

 

[Micah Sweet]

I think the experience of play in session is the most important part of TRPGing for a majority of the people who TRPG. That doesn't mean there aren't people who engage differently, and it doesn't mean those people are engaging wrong (other than, perhaps, not matching well with many or most tables).

I don't see what the majority thinks matters to the truth of the OP's thesis. It's just appeal to popularity all over again.

 

[FrogReaver]

Maybe for some games that can be assumed, but I believe TTRPGS are a different beast, with a wide area of engagement that can eclipse table play in importance and enjoyment.

my engagement with computer arpg’s is usually theory craft, test choices, theory craft more, test more, etc. I probably spend less time playing them than analyzing them.

 

[Fenris-77]

Maybe for some games that can be assumed, but I believe TTRPGS are a different beast, with a wide area of engagement that can eclipse table play in importance and enjoyment.

No, no, no. RPGs are also meant to be played, regardless of what some people may or may not enjoy doing with them. I feel like you're working to defend your own interests, which is unnecessary. I'm not judging anyone's engagement, I'm just saying that the principle that organizes most engagement with RPG materials is play and eventual play.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

I'm not sure what you mean. It is meant to be used at the table. But there's a culture of writing that has developed that has, I believe, become geared towards being entertaining for GMs to read, because they know that more of them will buy and read it then will run it.

Right, and if I have to read through long columns of text in Empire of the Ghouls to figure out how many monsters are in an encounter, then flip back a few pages to figure out who a named NPC they're referring to is, and then flip back to find what they're doing in combat that's not geared for use at the table.

I am running Empire of the Ghouls and the book being structured for readers makes it significantly harder for table use. In one major combat, I lost track of how many NPCs were involved, because who was there was sprinkled across the page separated by hundreds of unneeded words.

The adventure would be vastly improved if it was written more like an OSE adventure, with bullet points and important ideas bold faced, and put all of the heavy duty reading in a separate lore book.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Most time and energy (and money) put into RPGs does not lead to an actual game with players around a table.

For you.

Nearly all of the time I put into RPGs ends up in play, with a smaller amount (and sometimes an overlapping period of time) ending up published instead. (I don't publish nearly as much as I'd like.)

 

[mmadsen]

For you.

For the hobby as a whole. It’s the same with war-gaming. These are hobbies where people read and think about playing far, far more than they actually play.

Even active players read up on far more classes, spells, magic items, etc. than they actually use. That’s a huge part of the hobby, and it drives sales.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

For the hobby as a whole.

I would like to see more than anec-data. I know it's the collective belief, but I also think that belief relies on self-reporting from the terminally online folks who we have seen, time and time again, aren't necessarily representative of the larger community.

And even if most people still just buy stuff to read, that doesn't mean that actual adventures need to be written in a way that's actively hostile to table use. As @Reynard suggested up thread, put the fun reading stuff in a separate book.