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Roleplaying in D&D 5E: It’s How You Play the Game
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<blockquote data-quote="pemerton" data-source="post: 8504729" data-attributes="member: 42582"><p>Suppose this is true - why would it matter? What does it matter that you are playing DW and I am playing DW*? What analytical benefit, either in relation to play or in relation to design, is gained by individuating <em>game</em> by reference to rules interpretations?</p><p></p><p>Also, I don't know how you want us to reconcile your reference to interpretation as a cause of variation with your reliance on Dworkin, who argues that there is always a correct interpretation, given the same pre-interpretive material and the normative goals of the interpretation?</p><p></p><p></p><p>Dworkin is a universalist, not a particularist!</p><p></p><p>But anyway, the concept of <em>functional optionality</em> is introduced by Baker, by reference to how it is that the mechanics depend upon the fiction in order to be applied and declarations resolved. This is not local; that's the point of his word <em>functional</em>. He talks about how local practices might mean that something that is functionally optional is nevertheless done. For instance, <a href="http://lumpley.com/index.php/anyway/thread/427" target="_blank">here</a>:</p><p></p><p style="margin-left: 20px">There are a couple of places in the game where there are supposed to be rightward-pointing arrows, but they're functionally optional. I assert them, but then the game's architecture doesn't make them real. So it takes an act of unrewarded, unrequired discipline to use them. I suspect that the people who have the most fun with the Wicked Age have that discipline as a practice or a habit, having learned it from other games.</p><p></p><p></p><p>This is a much, much weaker constraint than the one that Vincent Baker is interested in. In A Wicked Age meets this constraint, but Baker is critical of IAWA for its lack of rightward arrows and hence the fact that it doesn't reliably produce fiction about what is actually happening - only outcomes.</p><p></p><p>D&D combat meets this constraint - no one is in doubt about who is winning or losing, as they watch the fluctuating hit point tallies - but that didn't stop the simulationist reaction against D&D.</p><p></p><p>A system in which the GM narrates the fiction and calls for checks when they want some input into their decision-making will satisfy your constraint - it will reliably produce agreement to the fiction that people signed up for - but that doesn't mean it would be a good system.</p><p></p><p></p><p>I don't understand what point you are making here. My contrast of D&D to DW is not based on predicting or conjecturing distributions of various approaches to play. I'm comparing the processes of play that are described in their respective rules texts.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="pemerton, post: 8504729, member: 42582"] Suppose this is true - why would it matter? What does it matter that you are playing DW and I am playing DW*? What analytical benefit, either in relation to play or in relation to design, is gained by individuating [i]game[/i] by reference to rules interpretations? Also, I don't know how you want us to reconcile your reference to interpretation as a cause of variation with your reliance on Dworkin, who argues that there is always a correct interpretation, given the same pre-interpretive material and the normative goals of the interpretation? Dworkin is a universalist, not a particularist! But anyway, the concept of [i]functional optionality[/i] is introduced by Baker, by reference to how it is that the mechanics depend upon the fiction in order to be applied and declarations resolved. This is not local; that's the point of his word [i]functional[/i]. He talks about how local practices might mean that something that is functionally optional is nevertheless done. For instance, [url=http://lumpley.com/index.php/anyway/thread/427]here[/url]: [indent]There are a couple of places in the game where there are supposed to be rightward-pointing arrows, but they're functionally optional. I assert them, but then the game's architecture doesn't make them real. So it takes an act of unrewarded, unrequired discipline to use them. I suspect that the people who have the most fun with the Wicked Age have that discipline as a practice or a habit, having learned it from other games.[/indent] This is a much, much weaker constraint than the one that Vincent Baker is interested in. In A Wicked Age meets this constraint, but Baker is critical of IAWA for its lack of rightward arrows and hence the fact that it doesn't reliably produce fiction about what is actually happening - only outcomes. D&D combat meets this constraint - no one is in doubt about who is winning or losing, as they watch the fluctuating hit point tallies - but that didn't stop the simulationist reaction against D&D. A system in which the GM narrates the fiction and calls for checks when they want some input into their decision-making will satisfy your constraint - it will reliably produce agreement to the fiction that people signed up for - but that doesn't mean it would be a good system. I don't understand what point you are making here. My contrast of D&D to DW is not based on predicting or conjecturing distributions of various approaches to play. I'm comparing the processes of play that are described in their respective rules texts. [/QUOTE]
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