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  1. Campbell

    D&D General [rant]The conservatism of D&D fans is exhausting.

    @Bedrockgames The way you are boxing us in is by addressing all RPG play via reference to conventional D&D play and treating any breaks from that as something unusual that bears special inspection rather than as thoroughly normal play that deserves as much respect. You are placing the burden on...
  2. Campbell

    D&D General [rant]The conservatism of D&D fans is exhausting.

    These things are part of game design though because they are dependent on what the GM role entails. When you say things like this you are centering conventional game designs and the conventional arrangement of player and GM roles (as a given). You are just assuming the GM is a world builder and...
  3. Campbell

    D&D General [rant]The conservatism of D&D fans is exhausting.

    My personal concern is that if a GM is hoping for a particular course of action that they would be manipulating or nudging players in that direction. It's a sign of their head not really being in the right place for sandbox play and it would really be a bad sign for more Narrativist play.
  4. Campbell

    D&D General [rant]The conservatism of D&D fans is exhausting.

    The orientation we are looking for when playing games like Burning Wheel and Apocalypse Keys is everyone is invested in all the player characters. We all want to see where their journeys take them as our primary concerns. The point is not to force a GM who is interested some world building going...
  5. Campbell

    D&D General [rant]The conservatism of D&D fans is exhausting.

    So, I think a certain level of mutual trust is necessary for most tabletop roleplaying, but the issue is what you are being asked to trust your fellow players and the GM to do. Trusting them to do specific things like be a fair referee in games where that applies or frame compelling conflicts...
  6. Campbell

    D&D General [rant]The conservatism of D&D fans is exhausting.

    30-60 minutes is insanely long for me (unless the game has insanely engaging combat which most do not). Would be interminably long for a lot of people I play with. In my in-person group, I'm pretty much the person with the most patience for like dealing with system stuff and hour-long fights...
  7. Campbell

    D&D General [rant]The conservatism of D&D fans is exhausting.

    I'd also say that adjudicate implies judgement and evaluation. That's not what we are doing in Narrativist play. I'm not saying what should happen when I make a GM Move in Apocalypse Keys. I'm making a provocative move constrained by plausibility as well as the game's principles and agenda but...
  8. Campbell

    D&D General [rant]The conservatism of D&D fans is exhausting.

    The engagement roll is absolutely eliding, but not all mechanics are. Most action rolls actually encourage you to dig in pretty deeply to the details. Often too deep for my tastes.
  9. Campbell

    D&D General [rant]The conservatism of D&D fans is exhausting.

    I mean we do not need mechanics to elide things. We just elide them, like Blades elides planning by just going to the score.
  10. Campbell

    D&D General [rant]The conservatism of D&D fans is exhausting.

    We do not have to wonder what the purpose of going to the dice is in Blades in the Dark because John Harper tells us (and it is certainly not to elide): It might be the focus of some games to rely on mechanics for things they do not want to dig into the details of, but that is not how any...
  11. Campbell

    D&D General [rant]The conservatism of D&D fans is exhausting.

    I will also add that if social encounters are not likely to be hotly contested, we are likely having very different sorts of social encounters. Looking back at my last 5 years or so of play, even including a good deal of OSR play, likely around 60-70% of the high leverage moments were social...
  12. Campbell

    D&D General [rant]The conservatism of D&D fans is exhausting.

    I think which sorts of fictional situations you choose to have rules for is an aesthetic choice, not built out of necessity. We can handle any situation solely through fictional positioning. In fact, we had a whole session last night in our Blades game where to dig into some character history in...
  13. Campbell

    D&D General [rant]The conservatism of D&D fans is exhausting.

    Why are we evaluating the Burning Wheel Steel mechanic in terms of the sorts of fiction D&D is utilized to play. No one has suggested importing it. Burning Wheel is not a game designed for the sort of action-adventure heroics being discussed. It's rather brutal combat and healing mechanics would...
  14. Campbell

    D&D General [rant]The conservatism of D&D fans is exhausting.

    Absolutely. I still think it's important that when we talk about how play functions, we can keep in mind the impact of experience and try to be mindful about how we are depicting things.
  15. Campbell

    D&D General [rant]The conservatism of D&D fans is exhausting.

    Right. That is the core gameplay loop for D&D and most conventional RPGs. It's not for a number of games. Including fairly conventional ones like Vampire - The Masquerade, Most 2d20 games, Legend of the Five Rings (Fifth Edition) or Pendragon. It certainly is not the gameplay loop for Apocalypse...
  16. Campbell

    D&D General [rant]The conservatism of D&D fans is exhausting.

    I don't think anyone is wrong about what they would prefer, but I do think people who lack experience say some pretty phenomenal wild things about modes of play that do not have much experience with. I think often what we see is that a lot of folks experience games like Apocalypse World for the...
  17. Campbell

    D&D General [rant]The conservatism of D&D fans is exhausting.

    For the record I have never stated that characters should have more information (in more conventional play) than makes logical sense given the setting and scenario at play. What I have suggested is that in the design of the setting and scenario the GM (or game designer) makes creative decisions...
  18. Campbell

    D&D General [rant]The conservatism of D&D fans is exhausting.

    I don't think there's an ought here. I don't think there's a way role-playing games ought to be or a particular form the GM role should take. I think there are repercussions and trade-offs for design decisions and we should talk about them, but there's no room for should except in the context of...
  19. Campbell

    D&D General [rant]The conservatism of D&D fans is exhausting.

    There are sometimes limitations put on autonomy or carrots or sticks for particular actions, but these come as a consequence for decisions that are made with clear eyes. What we get in exchange is the ability to impact the setting in reliable ways. That autonomy is wagered for irrevocable change...
  20. Campbell

    D&D General [rant]The conservatism of D&D fans is exhausting.

    Disagree with as in disagree with its existence? Or as in realize it's not for you but worthy of respect as part of the overall hobby we all share?
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