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Is RPGing a *literary* endeavour?
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<blockquote data-quote="Hussar" data-source="post: 7616625" data-attributes="member: 22779"><p>Ok, so, you agree that "more of an effort" is needed. Isn't that where the literary starts? If the situation is that the Githyanki are stealing something, well, without any literary effort, it doesn't matter if they are githyanki or orcs or Zifnarb because, lacking any literary effort on the part of the DM, all these things are are bags of game stats. There's nothing distinguishing them.</p><p></p><p>Or, to put it another way, what's the difference between a 5 hp orc and a 5 hp goblin?</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>I'd argue that it's not a huge corner case. Any new gamer, particularly young ones like myself when I started, have little to no context to base things off of. While something like D&D is broad enough that it generally isn't too hard to find context, something like, say Call of Cthulu certainly isn't. I've played far, far too many RPG's where the players treat it like D&D to not think that context matters a HUGE amount. Imagine if your only RPG context is D&D, and you start playing Call of Cthulu with a DM who refuses to give any description that is more evocative than bare bones, plain English. That experience would suck. A lot.</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>Holy crap [MENTION=42582]pemerton[/MENTION]. That's blindingly ludicrous. Teaching language to an ESL student shares virtually nothing with playing in an RPG. But, funnily enough, it doesn't actually take too long before an ESL student is advanced enough to go beyond simple, basic conversation and into higher level communication. And one of the primary sources for teaching that is literature. Even at the most basic level, See Dick Run style phonics readers are a staple of any language class. And, then we graduate to See Dick run quickly. Then to I see Dick run quickly. Then to I carefully watch Dick running. Then to I observe Dick running.</p><p></p><p>IOW, we progress beyond basic conversation into more "wordcraft" in fairly short order.</p><p></p><p>So, according to you, we should never teach a child words like "quickly" or "observe" or higher band vocabulary, since, all conversation obviously rests within the first 2000 band of common words. </p><p></p><p>I really hope that's not true because if it is, that's just a really sad view of language. Should we never teach poetry to an ESL student? No Shakespeare? How exactly do you propose to understand Western Culture without even a basic grounding in Shakespeare? Students should never be allowed to touch a Thesaurus? After all, one word is all they need right? Never need synonyms for anything because, well, all we're doing is directly feeding information in the most basic, simplistic way possible.</p><p></p><p>Gimme a break.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Hussar, post: 7616625, member: 22779"] Ok, so, you agree that "more of an effort" is needed. Isn't that where the literary starts? If the situation is that the Githyanki are stealing something, well, without any literary effort, it doesn't matter if they are githyanki or orcs or Zifnarb because, lacking any literary effort on the part of the DM, all these things are are bags of game stats. There's nothing distinguishing them. Or, to put it another way, what's the difference between a 5 hp orc and a 5 hp goblin? I'd argue that it's not a huge corner case. Any new gamer, particularly young ones like myself when I started, have little to no context to base things off of. While something like D&D is broad enough that it generally isn't too hard to find context, something like, say Call of Cthulu certainly isn't. I've played far, far too many RPG's where the players treat it like D&D to not think that context matters a HUGE amount. Imagine if your only RPG context is D&D, and you start playing Call of Cthulu with a DM who refuses to give any description that is more evocative than bare bones, plain English. That experience would suck. A lot. Holy crap [MENTION=42582]pemerton[/MENTION]. That's blindingly ludicrous. Teaching language to an ESL student shares virtually nothing with playing in an RPG. But, funnily enough, it doesn't actually take too long before an ESL student is advanced enough to go beyond simple, basic conversation and into higher level communication. And one of the primary sources for teaching that is literature. Even at the most basic level, See Dick Run style phonics readers are a staple of any language class. And, then we graduate to See Dick run quickly. Then to I see Dick run quickly. Then to I carefully watch Dick running. Then to I observe Dick running. IOW, we progress beyond basic conversation into more "wordcraft" in fairly short order. So, according to you, we should never teach a child words like "quickly" or "observe" or higher band vocabulary, since, all conversation obviously rests within the first 2000 band of common words. I really hope that's not true because if it is, that's just a really sad view of language. Should we never teach poetry to an ESL student? No Shakespeare? How exactly do you propose to understand Western Culture without even a basic grounding in Shakespeare? Students should never be allowed to touch a Thesaurus? After all, one word is all they need right? Never need synonyms for anything because, well, all we're doing is directly feeding information in the most basic, simplistic way possible. Gimme a break. [/QUOTE]
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