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Things that don't translate to the table top
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<blockquote data-quote="Celebrim" data-source="post: 6552577" data-attributes="member: 4937"><p>There are both direct and indirect things that get lost as a result of the need to simplify. An example of something direct might be the fact that in a PnP game, you really can't worry too much about skills becoming rusty through lack of use, or worry too much about the difference between a backsword, a cutlass and a tulwar in combat. Of if you do, then those things will become the dominate mode of play and you'll have to forgo something else.</p><p></p><p>But some of the indirect things you lose through lack of detail are less obvious and surprising. For example, one of the things you end up losing is the sense that magic is, for lack of a better word, magical. One would expect based on how magic works in stories, for magic to be a numinous fearsome thing which is as easy to control as a angry viper and must always be wrestled with and never fully safe and controlled. But in RPGs it almost never works like that and the more spotlight the RPG has on magic the less magic is like that. In D&D, many DM's have complained how the D&D magic system makes magic into an easily accessible science with predictable results. But it does so not because giving magic quirks and randomness and an aura of numinous awe is impossible, but because - if you are going to have PC spellcasters of any significant skill - doing that shifts such a huge burden of 'knowing' on to the DM as to make the system basically unusable. A system like D&D shifts much of the burden of understanding and knowing on to the player. Spells for example are traditionally in the player's handibook, and more or less fully described to them in ways that make the effects mostly predictable. You could make magic work in different ways, but only by greater detail and putting greater burden on the DM. </p><p></p><p>And yet even so, the people who are critical of D&D's magical system almost invariably go about creating a simpler and more controllable and more predictable system that undermines the sense of magic even further through unified mechanics and simplified descriptions of effects. The very fact that D&D writes up each spell effect individually, rather than uses a unified 'blast' mechanic for example, invites oddity and inexplicability into the game.</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>Handling the "I search" proposition (or it's absence) is one of the most delicate and complex problems in all of RPGs. I would note that in general, computer games tend to handle it fairly poorly as well, with either mechanics that ignore or trivialize the problem through passive perception or through systems that require 'pixel bitching' to detect what is hidden.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Celebrim, post: 6552577, member: 4937"] There are both direct and indirect things that get lost as a result of the need to simplify. An example of something direct might be the fact that in a PnP game, you really can't worry too much about skills becoming rusty through lack of use, or worry too much about the difference between a backsword, a cutlass and a tulwar in combat. Of if you do, then those things will become the dominate mode of play and you'll have to forgo something else. But some of the indirect things you lose through lack of detail are less obvious and surprising. For example, one of the things you end up losing is the sense that magic is, for lack of a better word, magical. One would expect based on how magic works in stories, for magic to be a numinous fearsome thing which is as easy to control as a angry viper and must always be wrestled with and never fully safe and controlled. But in RPGs it almost never works like that and the more spotlight the RPG has on magic the less magic is like that. In D&D, many DM's have complained how the D&D magic system makes magic into an easily accessible science with predictable results. But it does so not because giving magic quirks and randomness and an aura of numinous awe is impossible, but because - if you are going to have PC spellcasters of any significant skill - doing that shifts such a huge burden of 'knowing' on to the DM as to make the system basically unusable. A system like D&D shifts much of the burden of understanding and knowing on to the player. Spells for example are traditionally in the player's handibook, and more or less fully described to them in ways that make the effects mostly predictable. You could make magic work in different ways, but only by greater detail and putting greater burden on the DM. And yet even so, the people who are critical of D&D's magical system almost invariably go about creating a simpler and more controllable and more predictable system that undermines the sense of magic even further through unified mechanics and simplified descriptions of effects. The very fact that D&D writes up each spell effect individually, rather than uses a unified 'blast' mechanic for example, invites oddity and inexplicability into the game. Handling the "I search" proposition (or it's absence) is one of the most delicate and complex problems in all of RPGs. I would note that in general, computer games tend to handle it fairly poorly as well, with either mechanics that ignore or trivialize the problem through passive perception or through systems that require 'pixel bitching' to detect what is hidden. [/QUOTE]
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