Reply to thread

Message

<blockquote data-quote="ST" data-source="post: 4842335" data-attributes="member: 14053">Man, I was looking forward to seeing more advice for the OP's problem but instead we're off chasing something entirely different. I'm not sure if that counts as &quot;improvisation&quot; or &quot;cheating&quot;. <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&nbsp; &nbsp; :)"&nbsp; data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" />howandwhy99, I don't really know where you're going with this. I mean I get your argument, and if you want to hold up module-style play with strictly defined prep as roleplaying, and the other stuff as &quot;something else&quot;, well, okay, you're welcome to that definition, I just think you're seeing that not many other people share it. I've heard the &quot;Those are story-games, not roleplaying games&quot;, or &quot;Those are hack-and-slash games, not roleplaying games&quot; so many times over the last few years that it's like, okay man, you're welcome to your opinion.It just feels like too much of a stretch to try to limit roleplaying games to a particular definition of GM power and authority, when the games themselves define GM power and authority in a way that contradicts your definition. When I used to work in a GMing group for Neverwinter Nights (the PC version with player and DM clients), I'd say that your particular definition of roleplaying games fit that fairly well. It was &quot;module play&quot; to the extent that because you're using previously prepared areas, objects and creatures, you can respond to player improvisation, but only along lines that were pre-prepped. For instance, in NWN if your players want to head into the Frozen Mountains but the loaded module doesn't contain areas you can use as a stand-in for the Frozen Mountains, then yeah, you can't go. But in tabletop I don't see these limitations applying the same way.(And even in NWN, you could still &quot;fake it&quot;. Take a rocky looking area, change the weather and fog to Snowy, and put some drifts on the ground, all doable in the DM client. So even then, the line between &quot;running the game&quot; and &quot;designing the game&quot; is blurred.)</blockquote>

[QUOTE="ST, post: 4842335, member: 14053"] Man, I was looking forward to seeing more advice for the OP's problem but instead we're off chasing something entirely different. I'm not sure if that counts as "improvisation" or "cheating". :) howandwhy99, I don't really know where you're going with this. I mean I get your argument, and if you want to hold up module-style play with strictly defined prep as roleplaying, and the other stuff as "something else", well, okay, you're welcome to that definition, I just think you're seeing that not many other people share it. I've heard the "Those are story-games, not roleplaying games", or "Those are hack-and-slash games, not roleplaying games" so many times over the last few years that it's like, okay man, you're welcome to your opinion. It just feels like too much of a stretch to try to limit roleplaying games to a particular definition of GM power and authority, when the games themselves define GM power and authority in a way that contradicts your definition. When I used to work in a GMing group for Neverwinter Nights (the PC version with player and DM clients), I'd say that your particular definition of roleplaying games fit that fairly well. It was "module play" to the extent that because you're using previously prepared areas, objects and creatures, you can respond to player improvisation, but only along lines that were pre-prepped. For instance, in NWN if your players want to head into the Frozen Mountains but the loaded module doesn't contain areas you can use as a stand-in for the Frozen Mountains, then yeah, you can't go. But in tabletop I don't see these limitations applying the same way. (And even in NWN, you could still "fake it". Take a rocky looking area, change the weather and fog to Snowy, and put some drifts on the ground, all doable in the DM client. So even then, the line between "running the game" and "designing the game" is blurred.) [/QUOTE]

Verification