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<blockquote data-quote="Libramarian" data-source="post: 6063169" data-attributes="member: 6688858">Pathos is definitely rare in my games, but they aren't devoid of emotional engagement at all, the palette is just mostly limited to basic, vicarious adventure fiction emotions like &quot;uh oh we could be in over our heads here, this is tense&quot; or &quot;eughh this place is creepy&quot; or &quot;whew! we did it!&quot;. Or a nice sense of camaraderie and gratitude between the players -- that's a bit more rare, but it happens. We don't feel the need to deflate these emotions with irony or sarcasm.As for wonder &amp; awe, or vertiginous insignificance in the face of the weird cosmos -- that I have only very occasionally managed to get at, and I think I would have to take more risks as a DM artistically and maybe be more careful with humor in order to really achieve. I can see how it happening in sandbox gam/sim D&amp;D though. I think it's just the more personal, empathetic level of emotional engagement that's not realistically possible in this style, because the spotlight of the game is so focused on the player characters and the players play them basically as avatars (with a touch of escapist wish fulfilment), so there's not a lot of room for dramatically satisfying tragedy or even self doubt there.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Libramarian, post: 6063169, member: 6688858"] Pathos is definitely rare in my games, but they aren't devoid of emotional engagement at all, the palette is just mostly limited to basic, vicarious adventure fiction emotions like "uh oh we could be in over our heads here, this is tense" or "eughh this place is creepy" or "whew! we did it!". Or a nice sense of camaraderie and gratitude between the players -- that's a bit more rare, but it happens. We don't feel the need to deflate these emotions with irony or sarcasm. As for wonder & awe, or vertiginous insignificance in the face of the weird cosmos -- that I have only very occasionally managed to get at, and I think I would have to take more risks as a DM artistically and maybe be more careful with humor in order to really achieve. I can see how it happening in sandbox gam/sim D&D though. I think it's just the more personal, empathetic level of emotional engagement that's not realistically possible in this style, because the spotlight of the game is so focused on the player characters and the players play them basically as avatars (with a touch of escapist wish fulfilment), so there's not a lot of room for dramatically satisfying tragedy or even self doubt there. [/QUOTE]

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