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Message: <blockquote data-quote="oxybe" data-source="post: 6276922" data-attributes="member: 80033">one thing i've noticed with TTRPG designers is that very few come from a game design-esque background, most of the ones i've looked up have degrees in things like literature, history, geography, etc... very few seem to have mathematics or game design/theory as their majors.then again it could just be a weird artifact of where the two hobbies evolved from. the first videogames were made using things like old radar technology in a laboratory, whereas the first RPGs evolved from wargames drenched in history.another thing to note is that higher education programs, especially focusing on game design, are a rather modern invention. just a weird thing i noticed when looking up designers a while ago.mind you i'm talking almost exclusively about north american TTRPG designers. i have no clue about the backgrounds of designers in the european, asian, etc... areas.i can understand wanting to see that orc battle as i'm a very visual and tactile person. i simply work better when i see a bunch of orc minis (note im not needing these things to be pewter figures of individual orcs. a bunch of skittles or M&Ms work just as well, with maybe a dorito for a big thing) that i can move around and handle. it's just how my brain is wired.i'm also going to say it up front: i'm a very greedy person. i've been pampered by videogames that let me be a cool-guy-hero-man right out of the starting game and kinda feel let down when my TTRPG experiences don't allow me the same without a lot of hoop-jumping. if my options are a 40$ game that tells me i have to "earn" my fun, while the other is a 40$ game that gives it to me with the statement "it can only go up from here", i will steer towards the latter over the former regardless if it's a videogame or TTRPG.and if my options are "fun now" or "fun later", i'd much rather fun now, and once that fun's over with and immediately jump onto the next "fun now", or keep that "fun now" in storage until i'm in a mood where i really need some "fun now". because hey: you only live once.unless you're a Buddhist. lucky buggers.as for "flexibility and player input" that's all well and good when said out loud or typed but that's in an ideal world. very few GMs have the flexibility to allow for any given and all player input and will, if not constrain, guide their players to certain actions or outcomes. the popularity of modules and adventure paths also seem to tell me that the flexibility to do whatever you might think of isn't in actuality as high a priority as we gamers tend to make it out to be. in truth i think all we're looking for is a good gaming experience, often with friends, often without, regardless where we get it.and to me, more and more are TTRPGs becoming less and less of an example of good gaming experience when put in contrast to other games. the roleplay is fine and has consistently been the best part, but the game part itself is now kinda <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" /><img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" /><img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" /><img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" /> and looking worse and worse as other games and mediums evolve.</blockquote>

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