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<blockquote data-quote="Jer" data-source="post: 8679782" data-attributes="member: 19857">This gets at an inherent tension in role-playing games that are trying to model worlds based around the &quot;rules&quot; of a narrative with a traditional non-narrative gaming approach - a Champions game where Batman has to stop Doomsday is realistically going to end with Batman either running away or paste on the ground.&nbsp; Neither of which is satisfying from a game perspective and also doesn't match how it would play out in a narrative either.&nbsp; In a comics narrative the writer would (hopefully) come up with some clever story hook to allow Batman to beat Doomsday, but when you're gaming it out in a system where the combat game is supposed to be central to the gameplay that's not usually something that you can do - an author can work a Doomsday stopping narrative device into a story and not make it feel like a cheat, but when you're rolling dice at a table that kind of thing usually has an unsatisfactory feel to it.&nbsp; It feels like cheating if the GM has contrived to put a Doomsday stopping narrative device in front of you to be able to beat him with, and without a good DM it will likely feel like a railroad.This is true in the books as well - Rex Stout makes a big deal out of how Wolfe doesn't leave the house for business, but then has him break this rule via one contrivance or another probably 3 out of every 5 stories (especially in the short stories - which is what a lot of the TV show episodes are based on - where he runs into cases by accident while doing other things, usually relating to his orchids come to think of it).&nbsp; I think it's less about the run of the mill cases being boring - when Wolfe isn't leaving the house it's Archie who is going out and doing stuff and Archie is the action character - and more about making Wolfe uncomfortable and grumpy and irritable, which is something that Stout seemed to enjoy doing in his stories (even in the ones where he doesn't leave the house Stout contrives to make Wolfe uncomfortable - usually via Archie irritating him if not through other means).</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Jer, post: 8679782, member: 19857"] This gets at an inherent tension in role-playing games that are trying to model worlds based around the "rules" of a narrative with a traditional non-narrative gaming approach - a Champions game where Batman has to stop Doomsday is realistically going to end with Batman either running away or paste on the ground. Neither of which is satisfying from a game perspective and also doesn't match how it would play out in a narrative either. In a comics narrative the writer would (hopefully) come up with some clever story hook to allow Batman to beat Doomsday, but when you're gaming it out in a system where the combat game is supposed to be central to the gameplay that's not usually something that you can do - an author can work a Doomsday stopping narrative device into a story and not make it feel like a cheat, but when you're rolling dice at a table that kind of thing usually has an unsatisfactory feel to it. It feels like cheating if the GM has contrived to put a Doomsday stopping narrative device in front of you to be able to beat him with, and without a good DM it will likely feel like a railroad. This is true in the books as well - Rex Stout makes a big deal out of how Wolfe doesn't leave the house for business, but then has him break this rule via one contrivance or another probably 3 out of every 5 stories (especially in the short stories - which is what a lot of the TV show episodes are based on - where he runs into cases by accident while doing other things, usually relating to his orchids come to think of it). I think it's less about the run of the mill cases being boring - when Wolfe isn't leaving the house it's Archie who is going out and doing stuff and Archie is the action character - and more about making Wolfe uncomfortable and grumpy and irritable, which is something that Stout seemed to enjoy doing in his stories (even in the ones where he doesn't leave the house Stout contrives to make Wolfe uncomfortable - usually via Archie irritating him if not through other means). [/QUOTE]

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