Suspension of Disbelief

[Eosin the Red]

1. Hunkered names.

2. Male player to male DM love scenes (there was one involving my characters consciousness being housed in a females body and this freaky lich. It kinda scarred me as a young man so I don't want to talk about it )

3. Other players at the table knowing jack about the world or their place in it.

4. Dungeons

5. Magic factories.

6. Involved Astronomy.... i.e. A world with two moon or two suns, a funky calendar with the names of the days and months included (looks good on paper and in fiction but at the gaming table everybody stops suddenly and someone says "Pikenuartday.... is that like Friday?")

7. Worlds with a richly detailed history streching back longer than 3,000-4,000 years that still haven't developed past a hodge-podge of dark ages to renissance level technology or social conventions.

 

[The Thayan Menace]

Battle Conferences Kill Verisimilitude

The number one thing killing my suspension of disbelief right now, is when my players feel the need to conference with one another regarding combat strategy ... while combat is going on.

I've tried to put a stop to it, but the players actually get pissed when I suggest that it ruins the simulation.

They get even more upset when I suggest that their DM should also have the benefit of table-wide tactical advice for his monsters.

 

[Numion]

It had not occurred to him that giving us essentially English crossword puzzles might damage our ability to believe in the reality of his game world's languages.

Soo .. you we're ok with the fact that a crossword puzzle was essential to your groups progress, but not with the fact it was in english?

I mean, having to solve a crossword to do something would have to have a pretty damn good explanation not to ruin my gaming experience. After that, what language the puzzle is in, is pretty moot.

 

[Turanil]

<...> required that one read a 424-page work of 19th century military theory (apparently a seminal work) before the game.

Don't expect me to do that, or any of my players. Play is to be fun, not boring studies. In any case, I don't care if a puzzle is dubbed rather than subtitled, because I hate puzzles all the same.

What kills the suspension of disbelief for me?:
-- Inane names.
-- Half dragon-celestial-barbarians-ninjas in dungeonpunk garb.
-- Imbecile economics ala traditionnal D&D.
-- Mimic, Grell, Yrtak, Gelatinous cube, Beholder, and other such monsters.
-- Disneyland D&D instead of true sword & sorcery.

 

[S'mon]

I wish, now, that I hadn't complained. The replacement puzzles were so much worse tonight. One was based on Sun Tzu's art of war. The other, however, required that one read a 424-page work of 19th century military theory (apparently a seminal work) before the game.

Clausewitz's On War, right? "War is the continuation of policy by other means". Definitely a seminal work, and much more influential on moderm warfare (Grant Doctrine, Zhukov Doctrine, et al) than Sun Tzu IMO. But unlike Sun Tzu it's also a heavy & tedious read, I can't imagine trying to force my players to read it for some puzzle?!

 

[S'mon]

Pretty much all puzzles in-game tend to harm my suspension of disbelief, although I'd make an exception for something like interpreting a prophecy or untying the Gordian knot if it felt mythically right _for the setting_. Pure metagame puzzles, *yech* - part of my problem with Hall of Many Panes, since it relies heavily on Gygaxian punning, in English of course.

Dungeons & tech levels I'm fine with, D&D economics only bother me in extreme cases, normally I just say "it's like Brazil".

 

[S'mon]

From GM's side - I do ban computers at my game table and I will put a stop to rules-conferencing during battle - "I am counting now - one, two..." - with PC Delaying if I reach "six" before they act. I don't see those as suspension-of-disbelief issues though. Maybe a PC with an inappropriate name, but I just wouldn't allow one that would seriously bother me.

 

[DragonLancer]

For me its usually silly names, magic item shoppes and magic as technology.

 

[Sado]

7. Worlds with a richly detailed history streching back longer than 3,000-4,000 years that still haven't developed past a hodge-podge of dark ages to renissance level technology or social conventions.

Could you expand on that a little? Our own world had a fairly rich history going back at least 3000 years when we were in the dark/middle ages. Imagine you're in the year 1100, around the time of the Crusades. Go back 1000 years you've got the Roman Empire. Before that, you had the Greeks, Persians, Babylonians, Assyrians, Babylonians again, all the way back to Egypt and the Summerians 3000-4000 years ago. All long-lasting civilizations that left their mark in some way.

And depending on how prevalent it is, magic could put the brakes on technological development. If magic can do it (and do it easier), why build machines and study physics and chemistry and other sciences?

 

[Numion]

7. Worlds with a richly detailed history streching back longer than 3,000-4,000 years that still haven't developed past a hodge-podge of dark ages to renissance level technology or social conventions.

Some researchers have theories that technological advancement is a sum of different occurences that arent certain, and by no means inevitable.