Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.
Rocket your D&D 5E and Level Up: Advanced 5E games into space! Alpha Star Magazine Is Launching... Right Now!

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="twwombat" data-source="post: 2399573" data-attributes="member: 33265">Further Musings on Wonder I think you may be struggling with the balance of THE GAME vs. THE RULES.  Lemme 'splain... Since 3e came out, it's changed the pattern of how things work.  The admonition of "These rules are just guidelines, so feel free to change them as you see fit" got buried in the fine print.  Now there's the d20 license which enforces a rules core across every d20 product out there.  And once you get the hang of the rules, there's no more wonder in them. It's the same reason you don't get caught up in driving across town to buy groceries - it's changed from a journey of exploration to a daily chore.  You don't pay attention because you trick yourself into believing that you know exactly what you'll see if you bother to look.  You save time with this mental short-cut, but you deprive yourself of living in favor of spending your time and attention wishing you weren't doing the chore. Take that analogy into the gaming realm.  You have a game with a cast of characters and a task to be performed.  If you don't push beyond the rules that everybody knows about and challenge the players with something they need to figure out, it'll be a mediocre game.  It'll be fun, it'll be technically perfect: consistent and realistic and challenging in a "can we beat the bad guy in combat" sort of way, but it will lack the =soul= that makes our first games so special and vivid. It's the difference between "He cast a Horrid Wilting spell so he must be a 15th level Wizard" and "Ow - how the hell did he do that and how can I learn it?" So how do we get the wonder back?  I've been toying with three ways:1) New Rules.This is the industry's default method of making the game new again with every supplement.  Springing new feats/spells/skills/items on your players may catch them off their guard, but it's a short-lived buzz.  Games tend to turn into a rules-based arms race between GM and players, so it's difficult to maintain in long-term games. 2) Remove The Rules.That's right.  You heard me.  Take the rules away from the players so they can't refer to them during the game.  This has the advantage of forcing the players' attention away from the rules and onto the game, where it should be in the first place.  You can do this a number of ways: run all the numbers yourself and just let the players roll the dice, or let 'em keep their character sheets but ban the PHB during play, or even create the characters without stats and simply invoke Rule Zero to describe combat without using dice.  It's potentially more work for the GM, but generally a better experience IMHO. 3) Make The Game Outshine The Rules.That is, make the story of the game so compelling that the players will reject the rules in favor of playing the game.  In practice it's the same as #2 above, but agreed to by all parties beforehand.  This approach is tricky at best.  It requires a special type of player (Rules Lawyers need not apply), open communication, and a willing suspension of disbelief from EVERYONE involved in the game. I've been struggling with this for a while as a GM.  I feel like I've been getting bogged down in the numbers (NPC stats, etc.) and not enough in the events (what the NPCs do).  The underlying story is still compelling enough to keep the players coming back, but I feel bad in letting game sessions bog down with rules discussions... I've talked to other people in the same boat - the general concensus I've found is that magic just ain't magical any more.  3e magic lacks spark; it's all categorized and modular and sterile.  A wizard isn't discovering what's possible and available in the context of the world any more (GAME) - the player is wishing his character could cast the FOO spell as detailed on page X of supplement BAR (RULES).  The trick is to change these perceptions and expectations with your players without making the transition so jarring as to turn them off to the whole experience. You're not alone.  And good topic - thanks for starting it! -w</blockquote>

Verification