Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="hawkeyefan" data-source="post: 8141378" data-attributes="member: 6785785">I feel that seemed mostly a misunderstanding rather than anyone implying anything.The limits should serve whatever the purpose of the game is.If I’m  going to play a cinematic game of the Alien RPG, then I’m not going to give players the agency to wander about the galaxy. I’m going to initiate play with a pretty tightly woven scenario, very likely in a specific location, and they’ll encounter it, and we’ll see what happens. I’ve designed the scenario to be fun and engaging for a session or two.If I’m going to play something more long form, then I’m going to lean on the players a lot more. I’m going to ask them what they’d like the play to be about. We’ll do this through character creation with each player providing goals for their PC, and possibly shared goals for the group.I’ll come up with a scene to kick things off, and then where it goes from there is up to them.Not too long ago, I GMed for my buddy’s nephew and a couple of his friends. It was a one shot, and the friends were new to RPGs. We played 5E D&D. I made it a very short and succinct dungeon crawl. I intentionally kept things focused and moving. There were a few decision points for them, and we really gave those thought, but these were far fewer than what I’d want to do for an experienced group.When my brother comes in to town, he sometimes wants to play just for old time’s sake, to get together with some old friends and roll some dice. I don’t really worry about agency in those games. They’re brief and the purpose is not to let the players drive the fiction.It all depends on what the goal of play is. Sometimes, agency isn’t as strong a concern. But in my weekly ongoing game, it very much is.You said it was pointless to state that something reduced agency. I gave you an example that would matter to me as a player.Anything more specific in mind?I don’t agree with most of this. You can have scenes where no rules are engaged, but entire sessions is pushing it, and entire campaigns means you’re not even really playing a game anymore. You’re still role-playing, but without rules, it’s not a game.My games tend not to linger on this kind of stuff for too long. Interaction with NPCs is expected and encouraged, but shopping and that kind of stuff is maintenance that we sum up quickly and then move on. So the NPCs that we try to focus on for interaction tend to be ones where something meaningful may take place.The hope is that these interactions lead to interesting things, or give context to elements of the fiction.That’s fine. I don’t think of the rules as an imperfect simulation engine. My preference is that the rules help me do what I want to in the game, and that they’re fitting to it, and that they be engaging mechanically. I’m not exactly sure what it means to pretend to be an elf (meaning I’m dure different people will have ideas about that) but if that’s my goal, then I hope the rules help me do that.Ideally rules should be fun. They should be engaging and should promote play, and add to it. I don’t think that would make then obtrusive.</blockquote>

Verification