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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Emberashh" data-source="post: 9146217" data-attributes="member: 7040941">Indeed that is pretty much my contention. I think the root problem they were trying to resolve re: trad games is that a lot of the games of the time, and frankly most of the ones now, are far too cagey with letting players (including the GM) actually do things and just act. And its a pretty noticeable problem, as even the best GMs can't really stop it without unravelling whatever system they're running. Like, 5e is often called a power fantasy and all that but it really isn't as its a system thats way too scared about letting players really act, and the DM is no more empowered in that regard unless they start homebrewing solutions or just heavily lean into rulings. This is a problem I think is better solved mechanically by focusing on synchronicity, and ensuring that game feel, game description, and game perception are all matching up. Whether ones character is suceeding or failing, suplexing a dragon or running in terror, it should be identical experiences whether one is looking at the game from the perspective of mechanics, narrative, or a person's individual experience of both together. PBTA type games typically don't actually hit any of these points at all. When you make a move, it doesn't feel like you're doing whatever it is, it isn't being described by the game as what it is (because you as a player/GM are making up a description independently), and how its percieved fundamentally can't be an identical experience to either one, and at best will only seem identical to one. The main issue though with approaching game design from this direction is that trad players aren't always going to be all that receptive to what itd eventually look like; the aversion to video games and such is still a really strong prejudice in the community, especially amongst game designers, and video game design (and to a lesser degree, board game design) is where those innovations have been happening.</blockquote>

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