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Is RPGing a *literary* endeavour?
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<blockquote data-quote="pemerton" data-source="post: 7618445" data-attributes="member: 42582"><p>In conversation I choose words depending on what I want to say - for instance, if I want to describe a building, I might choose what other building or structure to compare it to. If I want to describe how a person behaved or seemed to feel, I might say they seemed upset and then clarify that to mean (say) angry, not sad.</p><p></p><p>I didn't say I choose words to convey mood or theme. I did say that my choice of words might depend upon mood. For instance, like many people, when I get worked up my speech becomes more energetic.</p><p></p><p></p><p>I have two related thoughts in response to these posts:</p><p></p><p>(1) If it's not a sinister village then why would the description be the same? <em>You arrive at a village. It's gloomy and the people don't look up.</em> vs <em>You arrive at a village. A friendly child offers to show you the way to the chief's hall.</em> In my 4e game, when I wanted to convey something about a duergar hold to the players, I described some things their PCs could see, including slaves and brutal overseers.</p><p></p><p>The more general point: <em>sinister</em> or <em>brutal</em> isn't just an overlay. It's an emergent consequence of particular features of a situation. Non-sinister villages have different features, which therefore warrant different descriptions.</p><p></p><p>This feeds into the second thought:</p><p></p><p>(2) What gives LotR a different tone from (say) REH Conan is not just, or even primarily, th literay style. It's the story elements: the characters, their motivations, the consequences that ensue from their choices, and the thematic content that emerges from these things.</p><p></p><p>I find this is even moreso with D&D fiction like (say) Dragonlance vs Dark Sun. I tend to find most D&D writing a bit overdone. I don't think that the literary stye of Dark Sun books does anything in particular to convey the themes of the setting. It's the actual story elements and expectations for play that do this.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="pemerton, post: 7618445, member: 42582"] In conversation I choose words depending on what I want to say - for instance, if I want to describe a building, I might choose what other building or structure to compare it to. If I want to describe how a person behaved or seemed to feel, I might say they seemed upset and then clarify that to mean (say) angry, not sad. I didn't say I choose words to convey mood or theme. I did say that my choice of words might depend upon mood. For instance, like many people, when I get worked up my speech becomes more energetic. I have two related thoughts in response to these posts: (1) If it's not a sinister village then why would the description be the same? [i]You arrive at a village. It's gloomy and the people don't look up.[/i] vs [i]You arrive at a village. A friendly child offers to show you the way to the chief's hall.[/i] In my 4e game, when I wanted to convey something about a duergar hold to the players, I described some things their PCs could see, including slaves and brutal overseers. The more general point: [i]sinister[/i] or [i]brutal[/i] isn't just an overlay. It's an emergent consequence of particular features of a situation. Non-sinister villages have different features, which therefore warrant different descriptions. This feeds into the second thought: (2) What gives LotR a different tone from (say) REH Conan is not just, or even primarily, th literay style. It's the story elements: the characters, their motivations, the consequences that ensue from their choices, and the thematic content that emerges from these things. I find this is even moreso with D&D fiction like (say) Dragonlance vs Dark Sun. I tend to find most D&D writing a bit overdone. I don't think that the literary stye of Dark Sun books does anything in particular to convey the themes of the setting. It's the actual story elements and expectations for play that do this. [/QUOTE]
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