Reply to thread

Message

<blockquote data-quote="pemerton" data-source="post: 9082310" data-attributes="member: 42582">I don't know The Between, and so can't comment on it specifically.I think that there is a distinction between dramatic need as shaped or constrained by genre - which is a thing in (say) Prince Valiant (which I know pretty well) or 4e D&amp;D (which I also know pretty well) - and the pursuit of XP, and hence gp, in classic D&amp;D. I think eliding that distinction is unhelpful, and in both directions: it is no help to a classic D&amp;D player who is used to mostly pawn stance dungeon-crawling to tell them that playing a knight in Prince Valiant is basically the same thing; and its no help to tell a Prince Valiant player who wants to have an old-school experience to tell them that playing a classic D&amp;D PC is much the same as playing their knight.I personally think the point is best demonstrated this way: although classic D&amp;D claims, as some of its inspiration, classic S&amp;S like REH Conan, the actual play of classic D&amp;D will rarely resemble a S&amp;S story. I don't think it's trivial to explain why not; but the starting point would build on something [USER=82106]@AbdulAlhazred[/USER] posted, and also [USER=7035894]@Clint_L[/USER]'s post on dramatic need. What drives Conan stories is the conflict of dramatic needs (eg in the Jewels of Gwahlur, the desire to have the jewels and loyalty/affection towards the romantic interest). Whereas in classic D&amp;D there is no conflict. The solution to the need for XP is just to keep on looting!</blockquote>

[QUOTE="pemerton, post: 9082310, member: 42582"] I don't know The Between, and so can't comment on it specifically. I think that there is a distinction between [I]dramatic need as shaped or constrained by genre[/I] - which is a thing in (say) Prince Valiant (which I know pretty well) or 4e D&D (which I also know pretty well) - and [I]the pursuit of XP, and hence gp, in classic D&D[/I]. I think eliding that distinction is unhelpful, and in both directions: it is no help to a classic D&D player who is used to mostly pawn stance dungeon-crawling to tell them that playing a knight in Prince Valiant is basically the same thing; and its no help to tell a Prince Valiant player who wants to have an old-school experience to tell them that playing a classic D&D PC is much the same as playing their knight. I personally think the point is best demonstrated this way: although classic D&D claims, as some of its inspiration, classic S&S like REH Conan, the actual play of classic D&D will rarely resemble a S&S story. I don't think it's trivial to explain why not; but the starting point would build on something [USER=82106]@AbdulAlhazred[/USER] posted, and also [USER=7035894]@Clint_L[/USER]'s post on dramatic need. What drives Conan stories is the conflict of dramatic needs (eg in the Jewels of Gwahlur, the desire to have the jewels and loyalty/affection towards the romantic interest). Whereas in classic D&D there is no conflict. The solution to the need for XP is just to keep on looting! [/QUOTE]

Verification