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<blockquote data-quote="pemerton" data-source="post: 9203309" data-attributes="member: 42582">This thread is not a thread about usage.It's a thread about what is the core of a certain family of games.Chess can be played blindfold, but that is not core to chess. Core to chess is the &quot;patterns&quot; of play that are generated via the interaction of board, pieces, and rules for legal moves.While playing Monopoly, a player can imagine themselves to be a real estate mogul, talk in a funny voice, etc. But that is not core to Monpoloy. Core to Monopoly is moving around the board, performing the actions triggered by the interaction between square landed on, game rules, and ownership of property as defined by the game, and exchanging the fake money in accordance with the game rules.The Arneson-Gygax game, and all the games descended from it, are different. The &quot;gamestate&quot; is an imagined, imaginary state of affairs, which includes people (&quot;characters&quot;). The non-referee/GM/MC participants control some of those characters, and say what they do. And the core of gameplay is working out what happens, in the shared fiction, as a result of those characters doing those things.There are bells and whistles: in the Arneson-Gygax game, as originally presented, the imaginary state of affairs is a treasure-and-monster filled &quot;dungeon&quot; that the characters are exploring and looting. In Torchbearer, there are rules that set limits on how one character alone can change the situation: the party must camp, and enter town, together or not at all. When I play Classic Traveller, all the characters are humans. Etc, etc.But the core of the gameplay is the creation, and transformation via characters doing things, of a shared fiction. It is not a mere artefact of play. It is the play of the game.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="pemerton, post: 9203309, member: 42582"] This thread is not a thread about [I]usage[/I]. It's a thread about what is the core of a certain family of games. Chess can be played blindfold, but that is not core to chess. Core to chess is the "patterns" of play that are generated via the interaction of board, pieces, and rules for legal moves. While playing Monopoly, a player can imagine themselves to be a real estate mogul, talk in a funny voice, etc. But that is not core to Monpoloy. Core to Monopoly is moving around the board, performing the actions triggered by the interaction between [I]square landed on[/I], [I]game rules[/I], and [I]ownership of property as defined by the game[/I], and exchanging the fake money in accordance with the game rules. The Arneson-Gygax game, and all the games descended from it, are different. The "gamestate" is an imagined, imaginary state of affairs, which includes people ("characters"). The non-referee/GM/MC participants control some of those characters, and [I]say what they do[/I]. And the core of gameplay is [I]working out what happens, in the shared fiction, as a result of those characters doing those things[/I]. There are bells and whistles: in the Arneson-Gygax game, as originally presented, the imaginary state of affairs is a treasure-and-monster filled "dungeon" that the characters are exploring and looting. In Torchbearer, there are rules that set limits on how one character alone can change the situation: the party must camp, and enter town, together or not at all. When I play Classic Traveller, all the characters are humans. Etc, etc. But the core of the gameplay is the creation, and transformation via characters doing things, of a shared fiction. It is not a mere artefact of play. It [I]is[/I] the play of the game. [/QUOTE]

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