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Resting and the frikkin' Elephant in the Room
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<blockquote data-quote="pemerton" data-source="post: 7173124" data-attributes="member: 42582"><p>I would agree with the first statement, but don't feel the force of the contrast drawn in the second. For instance, the content of the game (as a player playing my PC) is <em>I am hurt</em>. Mechanically, I would expect this to manifest in some fashion (eg penalties to actions, limitations of some sort on action declarations, etc). If the mechanics don't in some fashion (and there are many, may such fashions) express this element of the content in the process of resolution, then I would find them an <em>obstacle</em> to focusing on the putative content.</p><p></p><p>Hence when playing D&D I don't focus on any content around particular injuries, because the mechanics don't express any such thing. Whereas when my BW character had a piece of masonry fall on him and break some ribs, I couldn't but focus on that content of the game, because it ramified into the resolution of action declarations.</p><p></p><p>I prefer players to have some sense of how action declarations are resolved.</p><p></p><p>For instance, in an early 4e session I GMed the PCs were defending a homestead against a goblin assault. The PCs knew the goblins had wolf riders, and one of the PCs - the player being inspired by his knowledge of military history - wanted to make tank-trap style timber constructions to dissuade wolf charges and channel them into zones where the PCs could better attack them.</p><p></p><p>Now some of this is just fictional positioning: Is there timber available? (Yes, it's a homestead, in a forest, whose inhabitants are primarily foresters.) Are there tools for cutting the timber into lengths and rope for binding it into the caltrop-like shapes? (Yes, mostly for the same reasons.)</p><p></p><p>But some of it also feeds into resolution (eg rolls of the dice to determine how many wolf-riders make it through at what sort of pace; in 4e this might also be connected to a skill challenge). And I prefer the player to have some sense of how this will be resolved, so that s/he can make a somewhat informed choice about how to manage resources (eg in this case the resource of time, among other things). Given that 4e doesn't have a Craft or Woodworking skill, I can't remember what skill was tested - maybe Thievery or Dungeoneering? - but it's over 8 years ago so I'm just making a logical guess.</p><p></p><p>I'm not a big fan of the player being required to declare the action for his/her PC and then, only once s/he is - in the fiction - committed, learning how the GM thinks it might be resolved.</p><p></p><p>I think of a declaration that "I want to chop off the orc's head" along much the same lines. Until the player knows how combat resolution is handled in the game, I can't really regard it as a meaningful action declaration any different from "I attack the orc." Until a player knows - via knowledge of the system - what difference is made by adding in the extra detail, I wouldn't really expect him/her to contribute it. I mean, the player could also declare "I want to chop off the orc's head by standing in front of it then, at the last minute, sidestepping to the right, switching my axe from my right to my left hand, and swinging around the orc's out-of-position shield!" But in most RPG systems that's all just verbiage. It's not really content of <em>the game</em> at all.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="pemerton, post: 7173124, member: 42582"] I would agree with the first statement, but don't feel the force of the contrast drawn in the second. For instance, the content of the game (as a player playing my PC) is [I]I am hurt[/I]. Mechanically, I would expect this to manifest in some fashion (eg penalties to actions, limitations of some sort on action declarations, etc). If the mechanics don't in some fashion (and there are many, may such fashions) express this element of the content in the process of resolution, then I would find them an [I]obstacle[/I] to focusing on the putative content. Hence when playing D&D I don't focus on any content around particular injuries, because the mechanics don't express any such thing. Whereas when my BW character had a piece of masonry fall on him and break some ribs, I couldn't but focus on that content of the game, because it ramified into the resolution of action declarations. I prefer players to have some sense of how action declarations are resolved. For instance, in an early 4e session I GMed the PCs were defending a homestead against a goblin assault. The PCs knew the goblins had wolf riders, and one of the PCs - the player being inspired by his knowledge of military history - wanted to make tank-trap style timber constructions to dissuade wolf charges and channel them into zones where the PCs could better attack them. Now some of this is just fictional positioning: Is there timber available? (Yes, it's a homestead, in a forest, whose inhabitants are primarily foresters.) Are there tools for cutting the timber into lengths and rope for binding it into the caltrop-like shapes? (Yes, mostly for the same reasons.) But some of it also feeds into resolution (eg rolls of the dice to determine how many wolf-riders make it through at what sort of pace; in 4e this might also be connected to a skill challenge). And I prefer the player to have some sense of how this will be resolved, so that s/he can make a somewhat informed choice about how to manage resources (eg in this case the resource of time, among other things). Given that 4e doesn't have a Craft or Woodworking skill, I can't remember what skill was tested - maybe Thievery or Dungeoneering? - but it's over 8 years ago so I'm just making a logical guess. I'm not a big fan of the player being required to declare the action for his/her PC and then, only once s/he is - in the fiction - committed, learning how the GM thinks it might be resolved. I think of a declaration that "I want to chop off the orc's head" along much the same lines. Until the player knows how combat resolution is handled in the game, I can't really regard it as a meaningful action declaration any different from "I attack the orc." Until a player knows - via knowledge of the system - what difference is made by adding in the extra detail, I wouldn't really expect him/her to contribute it. I mean, the player could also declare "I want to chop off the orc's head by standing in front of it then, at the last minute, sidestepping to the right, switching my axe from my right to my left hand, and swinging around the orc's out-of-position shield!" But in most RPG systems that's all just verbiage. It's not really content of [I]the game[/I] at all. [/QUOTE]
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