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My Attempt to Define RPG's - RPG's aren't actually Games
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<blockquote data-quote="pemerton" data-source="post: 7480197" data-attributes="member: 42582"><p>No.</p><p></p><p>The last session I playd (and GMed) was a bit over a fortnight ago. I suggested <a href="http://www.enworld.org/forum/showthread.php?652393-Prince-Valiant-RPG-played-a-session-today" target="_blank">Prince Valiant</a>. The others agreed. They wrote up PCs. We started playing - two of the players decided that their knights were father and son, and that they were on the way to a tournament. The third player had decided that his knight was a member of a family renowned for its breeding of horses, and we came up with a reason why he was also heading to the tournament (it involved horses, but I can't remember now whether he was looking for buyers, or sellers, or just to admire the many horses that would be on display).</p><p></p><p>I used a total of three "episodes" - what in D&D terms would be considered "mini-scenarios" of 1 to 3 pages each - to provide material for the session (both fiction and stats). One I had read before and so knew what I was looking for when I hunted through the core rulebook to find it. The two others are in the "Episodes" supplement which I hadn't read before, and I chose one on the basis of authorship + theme (Kenneth Hite, "The Wild Hunt") and the other based on theme alone (it was a tournament scenario, and I can't remember the author's name but it wasn't someone I recognised).</p><p></p><p>Elaborating on the scenarios - eg providing NPC motivations and responses in the tournament - and connecting them together was something that I did as we went along.</p><p></p><p>Contra [MENTION=22779]Hussar[/MENTION]'s claim, we were able to open the rulebook, read it, or at least the relevant bits of it - obviously it's longer than most boardgame rulebooks - and then start playing.</p><p></p><p>This is exactly the sort of play experience that makes me think that Hussar is write to focus on <em>scenario</em> as a key element of RPGing but is making a mistake in seeing it as <em>an intermediate step</em> that takes "game creation engine" to "game". <em>Scenario</em> is key because <em>shared fiction</em> is key - and the rules of a RPG can tell you <em>when</em> you need to establish some shared fiction, and they can tell you <em>subject matters</em> for that fiction, and they can even give suggestions for that fiction (eg as the Prince Valiant "episodes" do). But in the end the people at the table have to actually construct that fiction, because <em>that's part of the core activity of playing a RPG</em>.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="pemerton, post: 7480197, member: 42582"] No. The last session I playd (and GMed) was a bit over a fortnight ago. I suggested [url=http://www.enworld.org/forum/showthread.php?652393-Prince-Valiant-RPG-played-a-session-today]Prince Valiant[/url]. The others agreed. They wrote up PCs. We started playing - two of the players decided that their knights were father and son, and that they were on the way to a tournament. The third player had decided that his knight was a member of a family renowned for its breeding of horses, and we came up with a reason why he was also heading to the tournament (it involved horses, but I can't remember now whether he was looking for buyers, or sellers, or just to admire the many horses that would be on display). I used a total of three "episodes" - what in D&D terms would be considered "mini-scenarios" of 1 to 3 pages each - to provide material for the session (both fiction and stats). One I had read before and so knew what I was looking for when I hunted through the core rulebook to find it. The two others are in the "Episodes" supplement which I hadn't read before, and I chose one on the basis of authorship + theme (Kenneth Hite, "The Wild Hunt") and the other based on theme alone (it was a tournament scenario, and I can't remember the author's name but it wasn't someone I recognised). Elaborating on the scenarios - eg providing NPC motivations and responses in the tournament - and connecting them together was something that I did as we went along. Contra [MENTION=22779]Hussar[/MENTION]'s claim, we were able to open the rulebook, read it, or at least the relevant bits of it - obviously it's longer than most boardgame rulebooks - and then start playing. This is exactly the sort of play experience that makes me think that Hussar is write to focus on [I]scenario[/I] as a key element of RPGing but is making a mistake in seeing it as [I]an intermediate step[/i] that takes "game creation engine" to "game". [I]Scenario[/I] is key because [I]shared fiction[/I] is key - and the rules of a RPG can tell you [I]when[/I] you need to establish some shared fiction, and they can tell you [I]subject matters[/I] for that fiction, and they can even give suggestions for that fiction (eg as the Prince Valiant "episodes" do). But in the end the people at the table have to actually construct that fiction, because [I]that's part of the core activity of playing a RPG[/I]. [/QUOTE]
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