Reply to thread

Message

<blockquote data-quote="pming" data-source="post: 5897948" data-attributes="member: 45197">Hiya&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;...snip...&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; True, but what you, the player, *can* do is decipher the code, figure out the riddle, or decern from the clues who the true traitor is in the Kings Court. I'm sure that if the Star Trek Holodeck actually did exist, you'd be in one (along with every other person in the world), and in it you would be able to swing that sword expertly, jump epically over walls, slay dragons, etc. But, alas, we don't have the tech yet...so we'll have to settle for doing all that with dice, and just use our imaginations for the rest.&nbsp;&nbsp; I think that is why a lot of RPG'ers prefer (or at least really enjoy) the whole &quot;challenge the players mind&quot; style. It's something that we can, litterally, &quot;do ourselves, as if we were there&quot;. That by it's self automatically gives a 'real', tangible connection between the player and his character and the campaign milieu.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; I agree completely with this. Personally, I think one of the big draws of the &quot;old skool&quot; style modules (and, IMHO, their superiority over pretty much anything written since), is that they were designed in a way that challenged the character directly, but player influence could have a HUGE effect on those challenges. New 'adventure modules', again IMHO, unfortuneatly seem to focus on &quot;deep NPC personalities with engaging story lines&quot;. This detreacts from letting a player become immersed into the world via his own &quot;thinking and imagination&quot; by virtue of the GM feeling like he somehow needs to 'trick' the players into going along with the story that they don't acutally know is going on in the background.&nbsp;&nbsp; Story? NPC motivations? Plots? Sub-Plots? Give me 20 minutes and I can have enough of those jotted down to last an entire YEAR of weekly, 6-hour play sessions. Now tell me to map out a 4-squar mile wilderness area, three cave complexes, a ruined keep with 2-level dungeon, the base town and floorplans for the local inn, tavern, jail, meeting hall and castle...and now design some random encounter charts for the various wilderness areas, town, ruins, caves and dungeons...and then stock each one of them with monsters and appropriate treasures... That? That will take *SIGNIFICANTLY* more than 20 minutes.&nbsp;&nbsp; So, when I buy a 'modern' style adventure module that is 38 pages long, and 35 pages are taken up by huge, full-page stat blocks with another half or more page detailing &quot;motivations and plot/story conenctions&quot;, with three pages containing a 6-monster encounter table and but 3 maps, each with no more than 5 'rooms'...all the time prep is still to be done. I feel ripped off most of the time.&nbsp;&nbsp; Anyway, I digress. Sorry for that. So, uh, yeah...there ya have it...my 2¢.&nbsp;^_^&nbsp;Paul L. Ming</blockquote>

[QUOTE="pming, post: 5897948, member: 45197"] Hiya ...snip... True, but what you, the player, *can* do is decipher the code, figure out the riddle, or decern from the clues who the true traitor is in the Kings Court. I'm sure that if the Star Trek Holodeck actually did exist, you'd be in one (along with every other person in the world), and in it you would be able to swing that sword expertly, jump epically over walls, slay dragons, etc. But, alas, we don't have the tech yet...so we'll have to settle for doing all that with dice, and just use our imaginations for the rest. I think that is why a lot of RPG'ers prefer (or at least really enjoy) the whole "challenge the players mind" style. It's something that we can, litterally, "do ourselves, as if we were there". That by it's self automatically gives a 'real', tangible connection between the player and his character and the campaign milieu. I agree completely with this. Personally, I think one of the big draws of the "old skool" style modules (and, IMHO, their superiority over pretty much anything written since), is that they were designed in a way that challenged the character directly, but player influence could have a HUGE effect on those challenges. New 'adventure modules', again IMHO, unfortuneatly seem to focus on "deep NPC personalities with engaging story lines". This detreacts from letting a player become immersed into the world via his own "thinking and imagination" by virtue of the GM feeling like he somehow needs to 'trick' the players into going along with the story that they don't acutally know is going on in the background. Story? NPC motivations? Plots? Sub-Plots? Give me 20 minutes and I can have enough of those jotted down to last an entire YEAR of weekly, 6-hour play sessions. Now tell me to map out a 4-squar mile wilderness area, three cave complexes, a ruined keep with 2-level dungeon, the base town and floorplans for the local inn, tavern, jail, meeting hall and castle...and now design some random encounter charts for the various wilderness areas, town, ruins, caves and dungeons...and then stock each one of them with monsters and appropriate treasures... That? That will take *SIGNIFICANTLY* more than 20 minutes. So, when I buy a 'modern' style adventure module that is 38 pages long, and 35 pages are taken up by huge, full-page stat blocks with another half or more page detailing "motivations and plot/story conenctions", with three pages containing a 6-monster encounter table and but 3 maps, each with no more than 5 'rooms'...all the time prep is still to be done. I feel ripped off most of the time. Anyway, I digress. Sorry for that. So, uh, yeah...there ya have it...my 2¢. ^_^ Paul L. Ming [/QUOTE]

Verification