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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Mercurius" data-source="post: 8114081" data-attributes="member: 59082">An inquiry that has been percolating in the back of my mind for years is around the nature of artistry and the way it interacts with playability, in the context of RPGs. What I mean by "artistry" is somewhat open-ended, but it can be everything that the word implies: aesthetic values, evocativeness, atmosphere, etc. Playability has to do with how it actually works at the game table, and the degree to which one uses it.I'll use myself as an example, to illustrate what I'm trying to get at. I've played RPGs since the early 80s, starting--like many--with AD&D. Over the years I've purchased many different RPGs in a variety of genres (although mostly fantasy). I'm particularly interested in setting books and RPGs with strong setting themes. Some of my favorite games/settings include: Talislanta, Ars Magica, Aria, Everway, Earthdawn, Shadow World, Symbaroum, Astonishing Swordsmen and Sorcerers of Hyperborea, Forbidden Lands, and Coriolis.Despite my relatively omnivorous tastes (although somewhat along certain themes), about 98% of my actual playing experience has been D&D. I've dabbled with this or that game, played a bit of Talislanta here, a bit of Mage: the Ascension there. But I always come back to D&D. Part of this is the ubiquity of D&D, and certainly if a friend was running Talislanta or Symbaroum, I'd jump on it. But not only do I almost always run D&D, but I just feel at home in the D&D universe.On the other hand, as a "setting junky," find that my very favorite settings--from an artistic pespective--are not D&D worlds (see the list above). I enjoy them artistically, for reading and browsing pleasure, and for inspiration for my own games. But I rarely, if ever, play them.Maybe it is simply a matter of feeling comfortable with the D&D rules. Maybe it is nostalgia. Perhaps those two factors are the only answers I need to explain my gaming history. But there is an interesting question here, I think, in this relationship between artistry and playability.Another example is the difference I find in my world-building for my D&D world(s) and the world of my fiction writing. The latter is distinctly non-D&D, with only vague qualities of Tolkien and Howard, and countless other influences, all within a soup that is (hopefully) unique and distinctly my own. My campaign settings for D&D, however, are far closer to established fantasy canon. The current setting I'm developing is strongly influenced by Hyboria, Points of Light, and other sword & sorcery, post-apocalyptic settings. Certainly there are unique elements, or elements that aren't clearly discernible in terms of influence, but for the most part it has very little that would be unrecognizable to those on this forum. And more to the point: it is designed with playing D&D in mind. I think we can see this issue with various Middle-earth RPGs. People have often complained that the mighty Gandalf is, at most, a 5th level wizard in terms of spell-casting, and maybe not even that (or maybe a wizard 5/fighter 15...he did kill a Balrog/Balor, after all!). Obviously Middle-earth wasn't designed with gaming in mind, but I have found that as game designers have tried to create an authentic Middle-earth experience, it loses some of that D&D charm. There is no "monster zoo," more of a "monster farm." And who doesn't like the occasional otyugh or ixitxachitl? And it is not that I don't think a Middle-earth campaign couldn't be fun--I've never played, although would be happy to--but that eventually I might find myself missing those weird and wild D&D anachronisms.Middle-earth, as a setting, is a work of art in a class above and beyond any D&D setting (IMO!). It is a finely wrought Alan Lee or John Howe watercolor, while most D&D worlds are collages of often clashing colors and shapes. But when it comes down to playing time, I kind of want the collage, the playability over artistry.The same basic principle applies to game mechanics. I have always thought that dice pools and any system that only uses d6, or even non-dice mechanics, has a certain aesthetic quality to it. But I'll be damned if I don't like rolling d20s, and any time I have tried my hand at game design, one of the underlying design goals was "make sure it includes the whole polyhedral family!"Anyhow, what do you think? What is your experience?</blockquote>

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