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Jon Peterson: Does System Matter?
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<blockquote data-quote="Neonchameleon" data-source="post: 8217780" data-attributes="member: 87792"><p>I don't. I think you are questing for <em>familiarity. </em>And familiarity is the reason you favour a lot of what you do despite it being against what you claim your preferences are.</p><p></p><p>D&D was explicitly a hacked tabletop wargame, founded round "pawn play" where you play from the top down rather than in character. If I want a good game for in character viewpoint play D&D is very low down on my list of where to look. Apocalypse World and its better hacks are right at the top. </p><p></p><p>If I'm looking to avoid metagame/dissociative mechanics I ignore any game with </p><p>(a) consequence free hit points</p><p>(b) hardcoded classes</p><p>(c) character levels</p><p></p><p>All these are, to me, pure metagame mechanics and have been known to disassociate me. And all of them are integral to every version D&D.</p><p></p><p>Again what you are saying you dislike is part of the raw essence of D&D. Any game in which an unarmoured fighter can take max damage from an orc swinging with an axe and the worst they will need is a few days in bed is one that is deliberately set up to ensure that bad things don't happen to PCs. </p><p></p><p>The two games I started with were WFRP and GURPS. Both games in which injuries in ordinary fights matter because you might actually take a serious injury and where, rather than having the occasional piece of weirdness like a rust monster or spectre showing up and being an awkward fit with the overall theme of D&D every fight has the risk of suffering a genuinely serious injury. The notion of D&D as "combat as war" is about as pretentious to me as a group of paintball players talking about how paintball is war. And the idea that D&D has ever been a system where bad things happen to PCs is, to me, ludicrous.</p><p></p><p>So when I hear you say what you want and look at what you do I find a stark disconnect.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Neonchameleon, post: 8217780, member: 87792"] I don't. I think you are questing for [I]familiarity. [/I]And familiarity is the reason you favour a lot of what you do despite it being against what you claim your preferences are. D&D was explicitly a hacked tabletop wargame, founded round "pawn play" where you play from the top down rather than in character. If I want a good game for in character viewpoint play D&D is very low down on my list of where to look. Apocalypse World and its better hacks are right at the top. If I'm looking to avoid metagame/dissociative mechanics I ignore any game with (a) consequence free hit points (b) hardcoded classes (c) character levels All these are, to me, pure metagame mechanics and have been known to disassociate me. And all of them are integral to every version D&D. Again what you are saying you dislike is part of the raw essence of D&D. Any game in which an unarmoured fighter can take max damage from an orc swinging with an axe and the worst they will need is a few days in bed is one that is deliberately set up to ensure that bad things don't happen to PCs. The two games I started with were WFRP and GURPS. Both games in which injuries in ordinary fights matter because you might actually take a serious injury and where, rather than having the occasional piece of weirdness like a rust monster or spectre showing up and being an awkward fit with the overall theme of D&D every fight has the risk of suffering a genuinely serious injury. The notion of D&D as "combat as war" is about as pretentious to me as a group of paintball players talking about how paintball is war. And the idea that D&D has ever been a system where bad things happen to PCs is, to me, ludicrous. So when I hear you say what you want and look at what you do I find a stark disconnect. [/QUOTE]
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