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Message: <blockquote data-quote="hawkeyefan" data-source="post: 9628778" data-attributes="member: 6785785">I’m sure you are able to distinguish between players and characters… but when you discuss play, you often fail to differentiate the two. You use the words almost interchangeably. For instance in the comment that I was responding to, you said:Characters are solving the mystery in all cases, regardless of whether the culprit is predetermined or not. Characters in The Between are solving a mystery just as characters in Call of Cthulhu are. No one has said otherwise.I think you meant players here, but it’s hard to be sure. Because I’m sure you know I’ve played games like those you’re describing… I’ve said so many times and have even mentioned them in this discussion. But I think clearly defining what the players are doing as opposed to the characters is a crucial element in this discussion. I meant the solution to the mystery. No one would craft the game that way. You’re exactly right. It is crafted so that it CAN be solved. That involves a level of authorship… of craft… of intent… that real world mysteries lack. There is a guiding force behind play that is designing everything with the intention that it work as a fun game scenario. That is a key factor that you’re simply dismissing out of hand. I don’t know if it’s because you’re failing to see why it matters so much or what, but it absolutely does. Yes, I agree. All of that is also what makes it different from solving a mystery. With a real mystery… the Ripper Murders, let’s say… there isn’t one guiding force behind what’s discovered and what isn’t, what investigative errors may have complicated the investigation, the weather and other environmental factors that may have contributed, the presence or not of witnesses, the testimonies of suspects and witnesses, and on and on. All of that stuff isn’t up to aGM who is making decisions about it with the explicit intention of it being an engaging bit of play. This is why I don’t think it’s the same as solving a real mystery. It may feel that way in play for some folks… I have no doubt of that. But as someone who doesn’t feel that way, it’s very easy for me to see it as the subjective thing that it is.</blockquote>

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