Unpopular opinions go here

[Scribe]

Why are your only options either silence or asking an insincere question? There's a whole world of human communication you're excluding in the middle there.

I'm not going to engage in a discussion on their future plans for the 20 seconds I'm getting my drink and sandwich pushed through the till.

 

[MGibster]

Starfleet has always been, and always shall be, a military organization.

 

[Emberashh]

Every minute of every TTRPG, regardless of system and what mechanics are or are not being invoked in any given moment, is gameplay.

Roleplaying is gameplay.

If I can't have fun still when I remove all the fluff and pomp of narratives, your game doesn't have great gameplay, if any at all.

Like I said, I don't need to gamify writing. Writing is already fun, gamifying it is restrictive.

That's because, in my opinion, these games care more about generating drama (as per the PBtA engine) than about genre emulation (any particular implementation of said engine).

If its all drama then nothing is dramatic.

The idea that there's a sharp line between playing the game, and roleplaying (restricted to speaking in character and resolving actions notwithstanding the system), is a bizarre category error(?) misconception born of early D&D's incompleteness and general failings, and perpetuated by the ROLL v ROLE debate of the 90s, and it's grandchild, GNS.

Sharp line no, but there is a line, and that line makes up the difference between a cohesive experience and an incoherent one.

I would even go as far as to say its the same fundamental problem I noted previously about integrating mechanics.

The key value of all games as an artistic medium is that they leverage interactivity in a way other mediums can't to reach the evocations the work is aiming for.

Now, Roleplay is interactive, no doubt, but it isn't mechanical and fundamentally can't be when you get down to it (hence why social mechanics always tend to fail), and without mechanics, you're not actually creating a game. At best, you'll only ever have a book of prompts, which is fine if you're honest about what it is, which isn't a game.

And when you do have mechanics, they need to be integrated in such a way that they follow through on what the game is trying to do.

PBTA type games may be following that if we take their goal as just being drama generators, but Drama doesn't inherently make for a good story, and definitely not in the way that these games create it.

I think Sid Meiers philosophy on games (a series of interesting choices) also applies here. Theres not much interesting choice being fostered when the "Drama" being generated is not a consequence of choices but just a hamfisted requirement of interacting with the game.

Edit: this also relates to earlier opinion of mine that people are way too obssessed with and try way too hard to tell stories, while neglecting the value of the game as a medium to do so.

Mechanics can generate stories all on their own, without needing to force and hamfist the narrative.

So in that light, I would judge Story First/Story Now type stuff as being a fundamental misuse of the medium, which yet again loops back to my comments on innovation and how mechanics are being held back. Better mechanics will do more for a game to tell stories than trying to force it will.

 

[overgeeked]

I'm not going to engage in a discussion on their future plans for the 20 seconds I'm getting my drink and sandwich pushed through the till.

You don’t have to. Again, why are the options silence or an insincere question? Vast excluded middle.

 

[Scribe]

You don’t have to. Again, why are the options silence or an insincere question? Vast excluded middle.

Because there is no time or need for an actual conversation and social expectations.

I also return my cart, address police as sir, and hold the door for women.

These are basics.

 

[Micah Sweet]

You don’t have to. Again, why are the options silence or an insincere question? Vast excluded middle.

Ok, what do you do in those situations?

 

[Emberashh]

Because there is no time or need for an actual conversation and social expectations.

I also return my cart, address police as sir, and hold the door for women.

These are basics.

Ok, what do you do in those situations?

I have a sneaking suspicion the three of us may be Southeners, while overgeeked might not be.

I don't know where those proclivities come from exactly, but its observable that people from the US south (and globally, from the US in general) are more outgoing in this way than people from the elsewhere in the US or from Europe.

 

[Scribe]

I have a sneaking suspicion the three of us may be Southeners, while overgeeked might not be.

I don't know where those proclivities come from exactly, but its observable that people from the US south (and globally, from the US in general) are more outgoing in this way than people from the elsewhere in the US or from Europe.

Canadian, Albertan raised.

 

[overgeeked]

Because there is no time or need for an actual conversation and social expectations.

Other countries seem to manage just fine in their social lubrication, sometimes even better, without the inane and insincere small talk people in the US seem find so necessary.

I also return my cart,

Of course.

address police as sir,

Alway a good idea considering their ability to literally and figuratively end your life on a whim.

and hold the door for women.

A bit outdated. Some might even say sexist.

 

[Micah Sweet]

Canadian, Albertan raised.

Central California.