Reply to thread

Message

<blockquote data-quote="kenada" data-source="post: 8186209" data-attributes="member: 70468">Conditions are just a way of giving a name to rules elements, so they can be reused and used by other parts of the game. Arguing that they constitute a kind of choice (or lack thereof) seems tenuous at best.Even if there were exactly one condition in the game, and that was the only effect you can impose, there can still be a choice in how one goes about doing that. For example: the “condition” of taking damage.You can do it with a sword, or you can do it to groups (fireball, etc). You can have someone do it on your behalf, or you can manipulate the environment to do it for you. Calling this an “illusion of choice” would be incredibly reductive.It also misses the point that Cody is making. When he talks about “illusion of choice”, he is talking about having several choices but only certain ones are viable because they are “the best” or “obvious”. If we can take multiple oaths to the same end (applying our hypothetical one condition), then we actually do have a choice.Of course, that assumes how we go about things matters in an RPG. I’d posit that’s the point. Otherwise, we’re all just sitting around fishing for excuses to roll dice. And if it always was just dice, was there ever any choice? Well, yes. How the journey goes is what creates a story.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="kenada, post: 8186209, member: 70468"] Conditions are just a way of giving a name to rules elements, so they can be reused and used by other parts of the game. Arguing that they constitute a kind of choice (or lack thereof) seems tenuous at best. Even if there were exactly one condition in the game, and that was the only effect you can impose, there can still be a choice in how one goes about doing that. For example: the “condition” of taking damage. You can do it with a sword, or you can do it to groups ([I]fireball[/I], etc). You can have someone do it on your behalf, or you can manipulate the environment to do it for you. Calling this an “illusion of choice” would be incredibly reductive. It also misses the point that Cody is making. When he talks about “illusion of choice”, he is talking about having several choices but only certain ones are viable because they are “the best” or “obvious”. If we can take multiple oaths to the same end (applying our hypothetical one condition), then we actually do have a choice. Of course, that assumes how we go about things matters in an RPG. I’d posit that’s the point. Otherwise, we’re all just sitting around fishing for excuses to roll dice. And if it always was just dice, was there ever any choice? Well, yes. How the journey goes is what creates a story. [/QUOTE]

Verification