Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Campbell" data-source="post: 7816268" data-attributes="member: 16586">Playing or running any game is subjective aesthetic experience. We are actively creating a shared narrative that we experience as we create it. We do not experience the completed tale at that table. How we do so matters. How it feels at the table is incredibly important. It colors the decisions we make and informs how we experience the narrative. At the end of the day most fantasy roleplaying games are built to tell broadly similar types of stories. What differs is that subjective experience of play, how we experience these stories.There really is not an objective way to evaluate a roleplaying game. That does not mean we cannot discuss and evaluate the subjective experience of play. It just means we should look at it more in the way we might evaluate a television show. We know different people are looking for different experiences so we can say this game provides this sort of experience, but that isn't what I am looking for. We can say how we feel when we play the game and analyze why the mechanics might lead to that experience. We can look at who the potential audience might be. We might point out mechanics that do not jive with the general experience of the game.The issue with only looking at the outcome is that the outcome is not how we experience it. It's not how we experience a television show or a movie and those things are not as personal, interactive, and collaborative as a roleplaying game. We experience it in motion and should evaluate in motion. It's difficult to do so, but I think it is worthwhile.Role playing games are exactly like ice cream flavors. It's not that there are usually good games and bad games. It's that some games are better suited to certain purposes and tastes.From what I gather [USER=957]@BryonD[/USER] wants a game that is fun to think about away from the table where you design things based on what they are. Pathfinder Second Edition is not really that sort of game. It is a game designed based on how things should feel at the table. When designing a fighter or a gnome or the hell knight armiger archetype the designers started with the play experience in mind. How is this supposed to feel? What kinds of decisions will players make? What themes should reflect? Does this make a player feel like a hell knight in training?</blockquote>

Verification