D&D 5E Help me understand & find the fun in OC/neo-trad play...

[Shardstone]

Another thing to add to the list to separate Traditional from Neo T. How do the players react to events happening in the game that effect them directly that they did nothing at all to trigger. This is a big split:

Traditional: the game rolls on and the characters deal with it.

Neo T: The players hate it, and often will vote to make it go away. Though also most Neo T DM hate it too, so they don't do it.

Oh memory unlocked. 1980 something...on a S tar Trek BBS (internet before Windows!) and so many threads would be flooded by Fanfics where Lt. Amanda Jones would fall in love with Spock and live happily ever after...written by Amanda Jones.

Uh what does this mean?

 

[kenada]

@kenada provided a definition somewhere which boiled down to 'neotrad is a trad game using indie/story game techniques and systems'

Credit goes to @clearstream and @nyvinter in this thread.

 

[bloodtide]

Uh what does this mean?

In Neo T play, nearly everything must be player based, player approved and player lead. The DM is there mostly to just react to the characters actions. If the characters do something, only then can the DM trigger a response.

The PCs rob a wizards tower....then it is ok for the wizard to come after the PCs.

But for some wizard" to just come after the PCs, for a reason unknown to them and with no trigger action is disliked by most Neo T gamers. The Neo T DM will wait and wait and wait for the characters to trigger something. And many Neo T players see anything the DM does that is not trigged by the player actions as wrong.

 

[Shardstone]

In Neo T play, nearly everything must be player based, player approved and player lead. The DM is there mostly to just react to the characters actions. If the characters do something, only then can the DM trigger a response.

The PCs rob a wizards tower....then it is ok for the wizard to come after the PCs.

But for some wizard" to just come after the PCs, for a reason unknown to them and with no trigger action is disliked by most Neo T gamers. The Neo T DM will wait and wait and wait for the characters to trigger something. And many Neo T players see anything the DM does that is not trigged by the player actions as wrong.

Nothing in this post is true of Neotrad. I have no idea where you got some of these ideas. No, I throw things at my gamers all the time, I'm not just forever waiting for them to make a move so I can react.

 

[zakael19]

Nothing in this post is true of Neotrad. I have no idea where you got some of these ideas. No, I throw things at my gamers all the time, I'm not just forever waiting for them to make a move so I can react.

100%, the only thing I agree with is that it's probably not going to be random? To use above example, that wizard is likely linked with something trying to prevent the PCs from achieving an aim. Maybe it's a minion, maybe they have secured an artifact of arcane power, etc. Pressuring the players and putting barriers in their way respondent to declared goals and intents is a key component.

I don't think trad play would have a random wizard just...show up to attack teh PCs either?

 

[Umbran]

The history certainly goes back at east that far, but I think it became the norm in popular media a bit later (in the last twenty years or so) - at least that's my feeling.

Perhaps. Harry Potter, in 1997, started a new wave of OC fanfic as folks inserted characters into Hogwarts.

 

[zakael19]

Perhaps. Harry Potter, in 1997, started a new wave of OC fanfic as folks inserted characters into Hogwarts.

I think the combo of AO3 and Tumblr in the 2007/2008 era giving large scale communities a place to flourish around near every fandom is where this really takes off.

 

[jmartkdr2]

Perhaps. Harry Potter, in 1997, started a new wave of OC fanfic as folks inserted characters into Hogwarts.

That might have been a major part of the shift, for sure. (Even though, somewhat ironically, HP is mostly a plot-driven series.)

But Superhero movies, especially the MCU, are very much character-driven stories, and that style is still now the norm in mass media.

 

[Pedantic]

I think the combo of AO3 and Tumblr in the 2007/2008 era giving large scale communities a place to flourish around near every fandom is where this really takes off.

There's also been significant norms changes around fanfiction throughout the 2000s. It went from something authors persecuted (either from a perceived need to defend their brand or a real distaste for people touching their things) to something that was tolerated and eventually even celebrated. Now there's even ascended fan fiction writers publishing original works and calling it out as how they started, like Naomi Novik.

 

[DrJawaPhD]

Nothing in this post is true of Neotrad. I have no idea where you got some of these ideas.

Yeah he's posted like 10 times with strawman arguments where he defines "neo-triad" (sic) as something completely different from reality and then proceeds to bash on how bad it is.

Every playstyle will sound awful when misrepresented by someone who hates it and is biased against it.