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Message: <blockquote data-quote="S'mon" data-source="post: 9492587" data-attributes="member: 463">So in this post <a href="https://www.enworld.org/threads/what-games-do-you-think-are-neotrad.703558/post-9491860" target="_blank">What Games do you think are Neotrad?</a> I got to thinking a bit about what's called NeoTrad or OC (Original Character) type play style, which is defined by a focus on the PCs, their freedom of action, their self development. It is not primarily about exploring the world (as in OSR/sandboxing) and it is not primarily about challenging the PCs or the players. The settings are normally adventurous, but not particularly threatening to the survival prospects of the main cast; irrevocable character death is very rare. Players are interested in exploring the inner lives of their characters as well as their relations with other PCs and NPCs. Players usually see their PCs as "awesome" and want the world to see them that way too. This applies even if the character is a traditional "feminine protagonist" without traditional adventuring skills, like Bella in Twilight. Major influences I think include 1990s text-chat "Simming", Anime/Manga, the Superhero genre, to some extent female-centric Romance fiction, and (mostly female written) Fanfic to a greater extent I think. It's a style that very much centres the players and their interests, and takes a GM who is keen to accommodate these rather than impose his or her own vision too much, while also helping the players to work together - "Main Character Syndrome" is an obvious risk in this style, something I've definitely experienced myself.The discussion of the new 5.5 DMG Bastion system got me thinking about the role of long term friendly/allied NPCs in OC style play, and how they are best used by the GM and players. I think it's very common for the OC to have a long term supporting cast of NPCs, the love/friend interests in Harem & Reverse Harem Anime is one that comes to mind. It seems to me that the 5.5 Bastion approach of "these are off limits to the GM" is not a good one. But neither is the the kind of 1990s/Trad approach of the GM/writer fridging the hero's girlfriend to create a motivation for revenge. These characters need to be treated with a certain degree of respect, a bit like the respect a GM should afford the Player Characters. So I was thinking a bit about how this works best in practice. If Goblin Slayer is the PC, is it ok to threaten Cow Girl or Guild Girl. To what extent is it ok to have disagreements, hostility, amusing misunderstandings, even have them fall in love with a rival. When would a player feel aggrieved, that the social contract is broken? Conversely, I think players probably get more annoyed if the GM deliberately ignores the supporting cast, perhaps from fear of doing it wrong, and focuses entirely on the Adventure. If you enjoy this play style, what do you think? (If you hate this play style, that's fine of course, but I'm hoping for some positive feedback) <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" /></blockquote>

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