"How do you get to Carnegie Hall? Do a dungoen crawl."

[Rechan]

What is a sensitive game?

Time sensitive. Not always an entire campaign, but certainly an adventure or two. You know, "You have x time to do y", meaning that every minute/hour/etc not spent doing/pursuing y, it's wasted time that's hurting you. In a "24" style game, Jack Baur doesn't exactly have time to practice piano.

And, I'm using D&D because it's the one I'm most familiar with mechanically, which I would assume is the case for most here. But other systems where you spend points to increase your skills/abilities (like GURPs or HERO), you don't have to have used what you're getting better at during the session.

Naturally it's not universal. Few things are the same across all RPGs, especially when talking mechanics and RP.

 

[Crothian]

Time sensitive. Not always an entire campaign, but certainly an adventure or two. You know, "You have x time to do y", meaning that every minute/hour/etc not spent doing/pursuing y, it's wasted time that's hurting you.

I've never seen anyone that plays this way. Wasted time hurts you? You make it sound like a person with a terminal illness that is trying to get the most out of the few weeks they have left in life. I guess if that's the style you want, go for it. But since it looks like your complaining about it then don't play like that. The game certainly does not indicate or lend itself specifically to it. The only game I can think of that kind of does is Don't Rest Your Head. But even that is not a perfect example.

 

[cignus_pfaccari]

I've never seen anyone that plays this way.

I've seen it played this way, where you go from adventure to adventure without any downtime in between. Where you don't even have time to spend any money or craft items or do anything that takes a significant amount of time. I've had some games like that myself.

Brad

 

[Beginning of the End]

99% of all XP systems are completely dissociated from the game world. (The exception would be the RQ-style systems where using a skill or practicing a skill gives you the opportunity to improve it, but those are the rare fruit on the RPG tree.)

This means that XP systems do not generally exist to model any kind of actual learning process in the world. They exist to:

(1) Provide a convenient abstraction of learning, which is
(2) Tied to a reward mechanism which focuses the players on what they're supposed to be doing.

The default mode of D&D is exploration, treasure-hunting, and the slaying of monsters. Traditionally, therefore, most of the detail in the XP system focuses on exploration, treasure-hunting, and the slaying of monsters.

Where else are the ratlings going to get their dung bombs?

I've never seen anyone that plays this way.

You've never seen a scenario in which the necromancer is going to complete his evil ritual at the stroke of twelve midnight?

I'm calling shenanigans.



In general, analyzing this as some sort of x-for-y relationship that the characters can recognize in their own lives is like saying that parents in D&D-Land roll 3d6 to determine the ability scores of their children.

Sort of like how everyone ASSUMES that in an RPG, people use the bathroom. But even when you explore dungeons, you never find latrines or bedrooms. Even in published modules.

Rappan Athuk has a bathroom on Level 1.

And I do make a point of including outhouses, sewer accesses, expensive indoor plumbing, chamberpots, dung heaps, latrine trenches, and the like.

 

[fuzzlewump]

I think that's one where the Rechan insists you didn't practice your tuba so he can make fun of the character. It's kinda funny that someone would set up a ridiculous premise and then get his grundies in a bunch over receiving rational answers. Anyway, at least the rules allow for such explanations even if the OP wants to pretend they don't. Is this actually a not-so-subtle edition war thread?

How the heck is this an edition wars thread? Both 3E and 4E sees you getting better at skills just by leveling up (i.e. killing monsters.) Or, did you mean between earlier editions? It's certainly a funny observation, and one I suggest that you do not get your grundies in a bunch over. By the way, what are grundies?

 

[fuzzlewump]

I've never seen anyone that plays this way. Wasted time hurts you? You make it sound like a person with a terminal illness that is trying to get the most out of the few weeks they have left in life. I guess if that's the style you want, go for it. But since it looks like your complaining about it then don't play like that. The game certainly does not indicate or lend itself specifically to it. The only game I can think of that kind of does is Don't Rest Your Head. But even that is not a perfect example.

Well, any level-based game actually does indicate or lend itself to it. Wasted time doesn't hurt you in a strict sense, but it does in a world where there are rival forces that are also out there gaining levels and power.

If only players can gain levels, then the question is how the BBEG and his forces became higher level to begin with, especially if they are humans and the like. So, assuming they can gain levels, and at a similar rate to the PC's, then sitting around does indeed hurt the PCs. If your game doesn't include evil forces, fine, but I think it's safe to say that a lot of games do, probably most. That's just coming out of the rulebooks.

For me, the best way to deal with this is to force downtime. To attain level 2 you must spend 2 weeks down time. To attain level 3 you must spend 3 weeks downtime, etc. This is to make it so "wasted time" is actually not wasted at all, and is actually an essential part of leveling, training, and living. Or I guess you can say that non-player characters and monsters can't gain levels. But I like this method better, for most games.

 

[S'mon]

Play Runequest.

 

[Starfox]

Play Runequest.

<joke>Which edition?</joke>

I could see a campaign about getting good enough to play Carnegie Hall. Instead of combat, you'd have concerts and auditions. Character development, motivation and interaction would be important elements. Think Flash Dance.

Of course, if a character in such a game ended up in a combat situation (say a mugging), their most likely response would be not to fight. Unlike a character in a combat game, a character in Fame the RPG would not expect to be competent outside the field of music. (Or maybe they would - remember the Polyhedron "Hijinx" game?)

A character in a violent game like DnD expects to be able to be pretty good as a concert pianist if they put their mind to it. Maybe that is a healthy reaction, the expression that the character is not only a combat monster, but also an artist at heart. Realistic or not, it brings out a heroic dream in us.

 

[Crothian]

You've never seen a scenario in which the necromancer is going to complete his evil ritual at the stroke of twelve midnight?

I'm calling shenanigans.

We're talking campaigns styles not one adventure where the PCs are busy for 5 straight hours. But even of the published adventures very few of them are like this.

 

[Mark]

By the way, what are grundies?

It's a sort of pastry or maybe a sports car.