Wisdom Penalty
First Post
[Mods: This is not an exclusively 4E thread, so I put it here. Feel free to move if you must.]
Rich Baker recently mentioned the default concept for an implied 4E setting, and it's here:
http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/drdd/20070829a
Take that as exhibit A.
Then we have Exhibit B. On this side of the house I'll firmly place Eberron.
What I'd like to discuss is the difference between these two schools of thought and, in the end, praise the 4E direction and the Way We Were.
My contention: The differences between these two setting themes extends to (or is a result of) the types of characters we play.
For this discussion, I'm gonna use some gross, extreme stereotypes (below). Caveat emptor.
----
Eberron represents, to me, the direction we as D&D gamers have been moving over the past five years. Our campaigns are rife with intrigue and multi-layered machinations. We have politics, politics, and more politics. We have cliques and cults and factions and political parties. Every dungeon must have a purpose, and every chamber should have a latrine. On the player side, we seem to gravitate toward and accept "highbrow" roleplaying. Our motivations are more complex (implication: "better"), we have method acting, we have characters with emotional scars from a bad childhood. In other words...our characters and our campaign settings are much more, well, like the real world. If you're a 37-year old fat guy that can play a female elf who was abused as a child and now seeks to establish a rival political faction to challenge the power of the status quo...you're the New D&D Gamer.
Paizo seems to be drifting in this direction. Read Rise of the Runelords yet? Lots and lots of references to potential romantic liaisons between NPCs (refer to the female examples from a bad home life, above), children with deep-seated angst, sons bent on patricide, etc. In other words, there's plenty of opportunity (and encouragement) for players to delve into soap operaesque threads. (Hey, I love Paizo and I loved Dungeon; I just think the group there has drifted away from the Greyhawk spires they used to hang their hats upon.) I know it may be appealing to our New D&D Gamer, but I'm just not too interested watching Harry (my unshaven, uncouth 41-year old Blockbuster employee and friend) roleplay his love interest with some female half-elf portrayed anime-style in the rulebook.
---
Contrast the Old D&D Gamer. Here's a beer & pretzels player. He likes to roll some bones, advance his characters, save the world, and kick some monster butt while doing it. He's no less refined nor intelligent than his New Gamer counterpart; he just plays D&D differently. He doesn't sit around a table to flex his acting muscles; he knows he's not DiCaprio in looks, manner, or ability. Sure, he'll fit a character to a concept and he can have moments of profound coolness on the RP stage...but that's not his meat and drink. He doesn't sit around a table with his buddies to act, he sits around the table to game.
He doesn't understand why every NPC in a village has to have some deep-rooted emotional baggage. Nor does he care. He gets the fact that certain nations may have been at war againts one another, but he doesn't necessarily need to understand the sub-section of the treaty that brought about the truce. In his world, dwarves don't like half-orcs and the feeling's mutual. Not everyone has to be friends. Political correctness is an anachronism. There's nothing wrong with towns filled with taverns and taverns filled with comely wenches that slap down tankards of ale and platters of meet on the table before him.
------------
So we have the New Gamer, and we have the Old Gamer, and it appears - in my opinion - that 4E's implied setting concept favors the Old Gamer. And this is Good.
Despite the way it may appear, I know that 90% of us are somewhere in between my two characterizations above. That's why I picked extreme examples, just to highlight the end poles.
That said, I think the community - both our gaming products and our approach - would be well-served in taking a few steps "back" toward Gygaxian D&D wherein the intrigue stems from the simple fact that no one knows what's beyond the next hill, politics remain an unknown concept, romantic trysts consist of a turn in the louse-infested pallet with the tavern's buxom waitress (if at all), and monsters exist to be killed.
W.P.
Rich Baker recently mentioned the default concept for an implied 4E setting, and it's here:
http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/drdd/20070829a
Take that as exhibit A.
Then we have Exhibit B. On this side of the house I'll firmly place Eberron.
What I'd like to discuss is the difference between these two schools of thought and, in the end, praise the 4E direction and the Way We Were.
My contention: The differences between these two setting themes extends to (or is a result of) the types of characters we play.
For this discussion, I'm gonna use some gross, extreme stereotypes (below). Caveat emptor.
----
Eberron represents, to me, the direction we as D&D gamers have been moving over the past five years. Our campaigns are rife with intrigue and multi-layered machinations. We have politics, politics, and more politics. We have cliques and cults and factions and political parties. Every dungeon must have a purpose, and every chamber should have a latrine. On the player side, we seem to gravitate toward and accept "highbrow" roleplaying. Our motivations are more complex (implication: "better"), we have method acting, we have characters with emotional scars from a bad childhood. In other words...our characters and our campaign settings are much more, well, like the real world. If you're a 37-year old fat guy that can play a female elf who was abused as a child and now seeks to establish a rival political faction to challenge the power of the status quo...you're the New D&D Gamer.
Paizo seems to be drifting in this direction. Read Rise of the Runelords yet? Lots and lots of references to potential romantic liaisons between NPCs (refer to the female examples from a bad home life, above), children with deep-seated angst, sons bent on patricide, etc. In other words, there's plenty of opportunity (and encouragement) for players to delve into soap operaesque threads. (Hey, I love Paizo and I loved Dungeon; I just think the group there has drifted away from the Greyhawk spires they used to hang their hats upon.) I know it may be appealing to our New D&D Gamer, but I'm just not too interested watching Harry (my unshaven, uncouth 41-year old Blockbuster employee and friend) roleplay his love interest with some female half-elf portrayed anime-style in the rulebook.
---
Contrast the Old D&D Gamer. Here's a beer & pretzels player. He likes to roll some bones, advance his characters, save the world, and kick some monster butt while doing it. He's no less refined nor intelligent than his New Gamer counterpart; he just plays D&D differently. He doesn't sit around a table to flex his acting muscles; he knows he's not DiCaprio in looks, manner, or ability. Sure, he'll fit a character to a concept and he can have moments of profound coolness on the RP stage...but that's not his meat and drink. He doesn't sit around a table with his buddies to act, he sits around the table to game.
He doesn't understand why every NPC in a village has to have some deep-rooted emotional baggage. Nor does he care. He gets the fact that certain nations may have been at war againts one another, but he doesn't necessarily need to understand the sub-section of the treaty that brought about the truce. In his world, dwarves don't like half-orcs and the feeling's mutual. Not everyone has to be friends. Political correctness is an anachronism. There's nothing wrong with towns filled with taverns and taverns filled with comely wenches that slap down tankards of ale and platters of meet on the table before him.
------------
So we have the New Gamer, and we have the Old Gamer, and it appears - in my opinion - that 4E's implied setting concept favors the Old Gamer. And this is Good.
Despite the way it may appear, I know that 90% of us are somewhere in between my two characterizations above. That's why I picked extreme examples, just to highlight the end poles.
That said, I think the community - both our gaming products and our approach - would be well-served in taking a few steps "back" toward Gygaxian D&D wherein the intrigue stems from the simple fact that no one knows what's beyond the next hill, politics remain an unknown concept, romantic trysts consist of a turn in the louse-infested pallet with the tavern's buxom waitress (if at all), and monsters exist to be killed.
W.P.
). I quit WoW because I was bored of just killing monsters and taking their stuff.
