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General Tabletop Discussion
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Is RPGing a *literary* endeavour?
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<blockquote data-quote="Hussar" data-source="post: 7616003" data-attributes="member: 22779"><p>Heh, you joke, but, the point is still there.</p><p></p><p> [MENTION=5142]Aldarc[/MENTION] relied on comparisons - a warhorse to a Lamborghini to make the point. Or comparing the monster to the monster at the end of Men in Black. Only problem is, that presumes that the listener actually knows what you're talking about. If someone hasn't seen Men in Black or isn't a car person, then these comparisons fall flat. You wind up with a Darmok and Jelad in Tenagra situation.</p><p></p><p>At some point in time, you have to drop the analogies and actually describe what's going on, directly. And, if you want to have any hope of hooking the players, you need to use at least some evocative language. Unless your game consists of nothing but retreaded material, where the context is already set, you need to actually paint that picture for the player. Sure, "There's a bomb" is going to get a reaction. We all know what a bomb is. "There's a bakudan" isn't really telling anyone anything, unless they happen to speak the language. At which time, you have to break out your wordsmithing anvil and hammer and paint a bit of a word picture to engage the player. (To badly mangle a metaphor <img src="data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7" class="smilie smilie--sprite smilie--sprite8" alt=":D" title="Big grin :D" loading="lazy" data-shortname=":D" />)</p><p></p><p>Thousands and thousands of pages of setting guides, genre fiction and whatnot shows just how important painting that word picture is to gaming. Think about it. We know what a githyanki is and if the DM tells us we see three githyanki, we've got a pretty good idea what's going on. To anyone else, that's just gibberish. Meaningless words. Without a certain degree of the literary (as in quality of language), you just aren't going to have any impact on the players.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Hussar, post: 7616003, member: 22779"] Heh, you joke, but, the point is still there. [MENTION=5142]Aldarc[/MENTION] relied on comparisons - a warhorse to a Lamborghini to make the point. Or comparing the monster to the monster at the end of Men in Black. Only problem is, that presumes that the listener actually knows what you're talking about. If someone hasn't seen Men in Black or isn't a car person, then these comparisons fall flat. You wind up with a Darmok and Jelad in Tenagra situation. At some point in time, you have to drop the analogies and actually describe what's going on, directly. And, if you want to have any hope of hooking the players, you need to use at least some evocative language. Unless your game consists of nothing but retreaded material, where the context is already set, you need to actually paint that picture for the player. Sure, "There's a bomb" is going to get a reaction. We all know what a bomb is. "There's a bakudan" isn't really telling anyone anything, unless they happen to speak the language. At which time, you have to break out your wordsmithing anvil and hammer and paint a bit of a word picture to engage the player. (To badly mangle a metaphor :D) Thousands and thousands of pages of setting guides, genre fiction and whatnot shows just how important painting that word picture is to gaming. Think about it. We know what a githyanki is and if the DM tells us we see three githyanki, we've got a pretty good idea what's going on. To anyone else, that's just gibberish. Meaningless words. Without a certain degree of the literary (as in quality of language), you just aren't going to have any impact on the players. [/QUOTE]
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