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General Tabletop Discussion
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
Boundaries of "drifting"
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<blockquote data-quote="pemerton" data-source="post: 6203985" data-attributes="member: 42582"><p>"Drifting" is generally used to describe using a game system in a way that changes the relationship between the techniques of play and the outcomes/purposes of play.</p><p></p><p>Some drifting involves keeping many of the techniques but changing the outcomes/purposes - for instance, Moldvay Basic's rules and techniques are mostly about classic dungeoneering play, but many players used it to play more of a heroic fantasy style.</p><p></p><p>Some drifting invole changes some of the rules/techniques in order to achieve the game's original outcome/purpose - this often happens because there were some kludges in design. I think that 4e groups who take extended rests of a simple ingame passage-of-time cycle and do things like make them the outcome of skill challenges, or have rules that you can only get an extended rest when you return to civilisation (which tends to make them "once per adventure" - a metagame unit of time - rather than "once per day" - an ingame unit of time) might be seen as an instance of this. They change the rules or methods of play slightly so as to make the game truer to itself.</p><p></p><p>The aim of "tight" game design - say like what we see in 13th Age - is to minimise the need for the second sort of drifting, by minimising the clash between the game's own methods and goals/outlook. There is nothing to be done to stop the first sort of drifting, though, because people will always use games for their own purposes, whatever the designers had in mind!</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="pemerton, post: 6203985, member: 42582"] "Drifting" is generally used to describe using a game system in a way that changes the relationship between the techniques of play and the outcomes/purposes of play. Some drifting involves keeping many of the techniques but changing the outcomes/purposes - for instance, Moldvay Basic's rules and techniques are mostly about classic dungeoneering play, but many players used it to play more of a heroic fantasy style. Some drifting invole changes some of the rules/techniques in order to achieve the game's original outcome/purpose - this often happens because there were some kludges in design. I think that 4e groups who take extended rests of a simple ingame passage-of-time cycle and do things like make them the outcome of skill challenges, or have rules that you can only get an extended rest when you return to civilisation (which tends to make them "once per adventure" - a metagame unit of time - rather than "once per day" - an ingame unit of time) might be seen as an instance of this. They change the rules or methods of play slightly so as to make the game truer to itself. The aim of "tight" game design - say like what we see in 13th Age - is to minimise the need for the second sort of drifting, by minimising the clash between the game's own methods and goals/outlook. There is nothing to be done to stop the first sort of drifting, though, because people will always use games for their own purposes, whatever the designers had in mind! [/QUOTE]
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Boundaries of "drifting"
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