Nisarg said:
This is a problem because many people who want to write adventures are actually frustrated novelists or storytellers, and fail to realise that if you create a "story" with a metaplot so fixed that a simple detect evil spell will make the entire adventure worthless, the problem isn't with the system its with you as a game designer.
The problem here Nisarg, is that unless you are playing a
computer rpg, rpg adventures are communicted to DM, and indirectly to the players, through a form of communication known as
writing. Not semaphore, not hymns, nor sung verse or odorama, but writing. And good writing requires good
writers.
And it may be news to you, but the problem of railroading is well understood by most anybody who writes in the industry now. The problem of having to write around overly klunky rules to a fanatic degree unfortunately does not seem to be as widely recognized or understood.
If you want a game which adheres wonderfully to the rules, and doesn't require players to follow any plot at all, I reccomend Grand Theft Auto. You can 'kick their ass and take their gas' all you like, the computer software will rigorously follow the rules, and no uppity writer is going to try to stick his nose in your fun.
The thing is, many of us who play RPG's were inspired to do so by these great fantasy writers, like Jack Vance, Robert E Howad, HP Lovecraft, Leiber, Moorcock, and etc. Some of us actualy liked those stories and wanted to recreate a similar experience in game form. Assuming that we can manage to carry our pretentions to write well over the insurmonutable hurdle of railroading, (since we are all such egomaniacs) then we should actually be able to do this and have fun with it.
If you want a "story" go write fanfiction, or try your luck at getting your novel about a young imp coming to terms with his sexuality published. Don't write adventures, which are really modules for a game. They aren't stories, they have to be designed DIFFERENTLY from a story.
When I say and RPG is a story, I don't mean the DM is reading a story to the players. I mean the DM and the players are making up a story together. I know some people hate this idea, but even in the lamest hack and slash sessoin, that is essentially what you are doing, you are playing 'lets pretend' and the rules and the dice are merely there to assist the DM as the arbiter of the story, to keep it moving along.
As to the sexuality of my imp which you seem so concerned about, numerous suggestions leap to mind, but I am trying to stay relatively civil. For a fact, I agree with your rant about DM's, and a few other things you have said, so perhaps it's best I bite my tongue here.
DB
