Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="RHGreen" data-source="post: 5911491">The following isn't a dig at the OP's post, but a dig at (creativity = do whatever random thing)I know I'm a bit grumpy, but I've never really understood playing against type. I can understand playing with a base concept a little, but outright going against that base doesn't make any sense to me.I'll illustrate.DM: "What race do you want to play?"Player: "A Dwarf."DM: "Okay. Typically, dwarves are short, stocky and resilient. They are inherently resistant to magic and poison. They like to drink alcohol a lot. Distrust elves due to their mutual history. Favour axes and hammers. Are great crafters in metal and stone and covet precious metals and gems. They live in underground complexes."Player: "No, not that. I want to live in the woods and use a bow. I don't want to be short and stocky, I want to be thin and over five feet tall and fair of face and all light and wafey. I want to be good with magic and love music and craft things in wood. I want to get on really well with wild animals and elves."DM: "Oh, you want to be an elf. Sorry, I thought you said dwarf."Player: "No. I want to be a frikkin dwarf!"DM: "WTF"If you a play a dwarf that has been changed to be nothing like a dwarf then it isn't a dwarf - so why be a dwarf? Be a good something else rather than a bad dwarf. I don't get this teenage angst 'I try so hard to be an individual so I end up looking like everyone else' issue with messing so much with what are poked at as clichés that everything turns into a incoherent theme park designed by a schizophrenic on an acid trip. Creativity isn't necessarily stunted by restrictions. Creativity isn't necessarily freed and nurtured by limitless possibilities. My perfect example of this is John Carpenter. When he started, he barely had a budget. During those times he created some of my favourite films. Halloween, The Fog, The Thing, Escape From New York. He really had to work to make any of those films look good at all. He got famous, well funded, and found CGI. The universe was his canvas. He could do anything.So what did he do - Village of the Damned remake, Escape from LA, Vampires, and Ghosts of Mars. I wonder if he's good friends with George Lucas.Anything you see or hear that has any artistic merit has been created within certain boundaries and limitations - voluntarily or through necessity. If a person throws random crap at a canvas, more often than not they will end up with a canvas covered in crap.</blockquote>

Verification