Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="pemerton" data-source="post: 5644122" data-attributes="member: 42582">To me this is illustrative of a big difference between 3E and 4e, and the approaches to play that they are intended to support. It also reminds me of this <a href="http://www.lumpley.com/hardcore.html" target="_blank">comment from Vincent Baker</a>:Invention - creating setting, character, nifty toys, potent powers - invention can happen before the game or during the game. . . A game where the invention happens mostly pre-play would be one where there are maps, characters, factions, technology, societies, interests, all in place when the game begins. I can't think of a good example of this in fiction - maybe Babylon 5? - but clearly lots of roleplaying happens this way. Look at all the dang setting books! . . . Similarly, meaning: A game where the meaning happens mostly pre-play is one in which somebody or everybody has something to say and already knows what it is when the game starts. . . My goal as a gamer and a game designer is to push both invention and meaning as much as possible into actual play. Problem: the hobby, represented by the books in your game store and the conventional habits of most gamers, prefers the pre-game over the game. . . The solution is to design games that're inspiring, but daydreaming about how much fun the game will be to play seems pointless and lame, and you can't create extensive histories or backstories because that stuff's collaborative - - so you call a friend.I think that 4e is designed more along the lines that Baker advocates, than is 3E. When 4e came out, I remember a lot of people saying that it plays better than it reads, as if this was something for which an apology was required.From my point of view, this feature of 4e is a virtue. I want the game to be written as tightly as possible to support play. If it's a good read for daydreamers, then something has gone wrong - it's become a novel, or a guidebook to an imaginary world, rather than a text to support RPGing.</blockquote>

Verification