[Non-Americans] Are the stereotypes true?

[NiTessine]

I've noticed a similar stereotype about Finns as opposed to the rest of the world. It's not entirely baseless, and not in an entirely good way, since it's mostly a reflection of the rampant elitism in the Finnish RPG scene, especially on the larping side.

Actually, the Nordic larp scene might be one reason of the "superior European roleplaying" stereotype, because one of the core concepts seems to be that there must be no rules mechanics in the larp if it can be avoided, while American larping seems to still be mostly Vampire stuff and running around hitting people with boffer swords. Note that my only source on American larping scene is the Über Goober DVD, so I might be wrong. In addition, the Nordic larping scene makes a big deal of itself, resulting in a great deal of publicity.

But really, our tabletop gaming sessions are just the same rules-lawyering, Monty Python-quoting, Mountain Dew -soaked funfests that they are all around the world. Except in Sweden, where they don't get Mountain Dew.

 

[barsoomcore]

Exactly what sort of qualities do Americans share, for that matter, other than being American?

Exactly. My point carries the same amount of weight on either end. I guess the only thing to be said is that there's far fewer Americans than non-Americans, and Americans are more likely to have had shared experiences than non-Americans, so if you wanna talk in cultural terms, I guess you have to deal with less suspension of disbelief when you say, "Americans are..." than when you say "Non-Americans are..."

Unless you're American, of course. Then you'll believe anything.

 

[Turjan]

Well, I have only limited experience on the subject, and it's definitely not statistically significant .

In Germany, i noticed that DM's oriented towards story-telling tended to use the most popular German RPG (The Dark Eye), whereas the D&D-playing DM's ran much more rules-heavy games. This is certainly not given by the systems themselves, because they are not that different, except for the lower power rise in TDE. But, as I said, my experience is limited, so just treat it as a simple observation .

That's a segregation by games then, not by nationality . Obviously, both types of players exist there.

 

[tassander]

Well, I have only limited experience on the subject, and it's definitely not statistically significant .

In Germany, i noticed that DM's oriented towards story-telling tended to use the most popular German RPG (The Dark Eye), whereas the D&D-playing DM's ran much more rules-heavy games. This is certainly not given by the systems themselves, because they are not that different, except for the lower power rise in TDE. But, as I said, my experience is limited, so just treat it as a simple observation .

That's a segregation by games then, not by nationality . Obviously, both types of players exist there.

that's exactly the point I wanted to make. I don't think that the cultural differences between the US and Europe are big enough to per se influence the gaming style on either side of the pond.

The prevalent gaming system otoh does of course influence the way RPGs are commonly played.
A gaming systems does not necessarily become succesful because it advocates a certain gaming style, though. Many other factors are at least as important, such as TV-ads and availability.

 

[Plane Sailing]

We were playing Feng Shui. If you get bogged down by the rules in Feng Shui, you deserve a short sharp kick to the naughty places.

Interestingly I'm trying to get to grips with "Heroquest" at the moment and I'm finding it tricky getting my head around the concepts, it is so free-form. I'll start a separate thread to discuss that though

 

[Jürgen Hubert]

Interestingly some of the most weird and innovative computer games came from France (Alone in the Dark for one), and it has a rep for producing weird films too. Perhaps France is just a naturally creative place?

Perhaps most French gaming authors (and movie makers) are more concerned with the artistry of creating something than wondering whether it is going to be profitable...

Doesn't mean that the resulting game is going to be better, of course.