Scott Rouse: of Interesting Note

[Vigilance]

Scott Rouse is more of an organization than a guy. Scott Rouse is posting from a van outside your house right now.

I knew the Freemasons were behind it!

 

[delericho]

One little scrap of information I took notice from response from Scott Rouse is that he does not refer to the game as pen-n-paper, but rather as 'tabletop' gaming.

I've always used the terms interchangeably, although I prefer 'tabletop' myself. I don't think it means anything.

 

[+5 Keyboard!]

D&D 3.5 is unalienable from miniature skirmish battles. You literally cannot play the game correctly without minis. IMO, that's the biggest difference between AD&D and D&D 3.5. Whilst the game may have started as Chainmail, to me, my earliest memories of the game (and I'm 28) came from sitting around in a friend's basement, listening to him describe a scene, and my imagining what's going on in the fantasy world of the game.

Part of what is lost about D&D to me is the seeming subjugation of imagination. Everything is codified, every situation detailed in cold print. When I describe a monster or a character, it doesn't matter what I say, because it's essentially reduced to a mass produced blob of plastic on a dry erase battlegrid. Combats are not narrative, visceral exchanges, but instead are movement on a chessboard to avoid attacks of opportunity. What I carry to every weekly game is a dufflebag full of books, battlemats, dry erase markers, dice, and an organized, four tier tacklebox full of minis. We have a presentation board hammered onto the wall of our gaming room just to keep track of initiative.

We have to remove soda bottles, chips, homemade brownies and cookies from our table just to put out the battlegrid. The game is less comfortable, for me, for having become a miniatures skirmish game.

And I just realized last evening that I haven't used the term RPG in about 7 years. Everytime I write it or say it in conversation it's d20 (or D&D if I'm talking specifically about the fantasy RPG).

Retreater

I've thought about this a great, great deal and worried that the more use of miniatures I have in my games that the players will stop imagining the game. If you're the DM ask your players if this is the case for them... that they are not getting to imagine it because of the use of minis. When you DM with simply descriptive words and exchanges with your players where everything takes place in the mind, you as the DM are seeing it a lot more in your mind's eye. However, using minis while at the same time providing all of that great descriptive narrative you like to use may seem to change that for you, it doesn't necessarily change it for your players. In fact, I venture to say that if asked, most players would say they are imagining the game just as well as if they weren't using any minis at all.

The onus is on the DM to make the experience one of imagination. The use of minis are meant to aid that. Not to take away from it. If the game devolves into a simple quasi-chess match of moving figurines around the table... well, who's fault is that? The DM's.

When I hear my players talk about past games with each other or a new player that joins the game. I hear a lot descriptions about their adventures and the atmosphere at the time, but I never hear about how their minis were moved this way or that way to create some tactical advantage or whatnot.

Oh, and just to address the OP's concern, I've never used the word PnP before and never knew what it meant until reading some of these threads. However, I've used Table Top games for years interchangeable with RPGs.

EDIT: I have never played DDM Skirmish games as it does seem to be a game more about the minis than the RPG experience and I believe that is obvious and intentional. For those that simply like the true table top wargames, then that's fine. But I can see the problem for someone that thinks he's playing RPG D&D and is using the miniatures system. In that case, my advice is ditch that system, keep the minis .

 

[Teflon Billy]

Without any representation whatsoever that must be really tough to do, especially in mass combat situation. I don't use much mins either, but we still use dices, small boxes or tokens for representation of the situation. We do not need the squre battle mat but still, it really helps me to build my imagination on something...

I wonder how you manage that, because I would not be able to do that. You have my admiration!

I do it as well, it's not that difficult once you get used to the idea.