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*TTRPGs General
In Defense of the Theory of Dissociated Mechanics
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<blockquote data-quote="Yesway Jose" data-source="post: 5625477" data-attributes="member: 6679265"><p>I remember once a time when it was called "metagame thinking" and it was generally frowned upon to influence what you knew as a player with what your character knows. Very few players if any were able to Act their characters as if they, the Player, were completely and utterly oblivious to the mechanics -- but many of us followed a line in the sand and enjoyed it. Now "metagame thinking" has been repurposed like it's the New Black. </p><p> </p><p>This has been a big learning curve for me, personally. The main reason is the issue of immersion. For example, as I wrote before, D&D fiction is already incoherent as is (a maleable mishmash of real-life, fantasy, historical, D&D and genre laws). If my PC is trying to anticipate the NPC's next step, am I supposed to imagine what the character would do, or am I supposed to account for how the rules dictate what the character will likely do? What if the DM didn't apply any stats to the NPC, is the character more "free" to act in a plausible way than if a rules "straight-jacket" was applied? You end up have several different paradigms both inside and outside of combat and unsure of which PC or NPC is operating at which level at any one time.</p><p> </p><p>If people say that, in actual game play, that 'disassociated' patterns based on various mechanics (including but not limited to 1/day) do not feel like implausible mandates poking out from a convincing flow of narrative... then I believe you. To be a honest, a 1/day mechanic on its own is hardly worth arguing about. IMO I have a stronger feeling about the sumtotal impression of the number and nature of various mechanics.</p><p> </p><p>I read in an essay that in Author stance, the player narratively decides the outcome, and then retroactively motivates the character to do so (otherwise, it's Pawn stance). So I don't see how non-Actor stance is necessarily immune from the definition of 'disassociated' mechanics, unless it is Pawn stance? That retroactive motivation could be just in your head or you can announce to the group how you use Come and Get it, but some retroactive motivations must be better than others, so call that a "degree of disassociation" instead of "association" or no "disassociation"?</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Yesway Jose, post: 5625477, member: 6679265"] I remember once a time when it was called "metagame thinking" and it was generally frowned upon to influence what you knew as a player with what your character knows. Very few players if any were able to Act their characters as if they, the Player, were completely and utterly oblivious to the mechanics -- but many of us followed a line in the sand and enjoyed it. Now "metagame thinking" has been repurposed like it's the New Black. This has been a big learning curve for me, personally. The main reason is the issue of immersion. For example, as I wrote before, D&D fiction is already incoherent as is (a maleable mishmash of real-life, fantasy, historical, D&D and genre laws). If my PC is trying to anticipate the NPC's next step, am I supposed to imagine what the character would do, or am I supposed to account for how the rules dictate what the character will likely do? What if the DM didn't apply any stats to the NPC, is the character more "free" to act in a plausible way than if a rules "straight-jacket" was applied? You end up have several different paradigms both inside and outside of combat and unsure of which PC or NPC is operating at which level at any one time. If people say that, in actual game play, that 'disassociated' patterns based on various mechanics (including but not limited to 1/day) do not feel like implausible mandates poking out from a convincing flow of narrative... then I believe you. To be a honest, a 1/day mechanic on its own is hardly worth arguing about. IMO I have a stronger feeling about the sumtotal impression of the number and nature of various mechanics. I read in an essay that in Author stance, the player narratively decides the outcome, and then retroactively motivates the character to do so (otherwise, it's Pawn stance). So I don't see how non-Actor stance is necessarily immune from the definition of 'disassociated' mechanics, unless it is Pawn stance? That retroactive motivation could be just in your head or you can announce to the group how you use Come and Get it, but some retroactive motivations must be better than others, so call that a "degree of disassociation" instead of "association" or no "disassociation"? [/QUOTE]
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