Menu
News
All News
Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
Pathfinder
Starfinder
Warhammer
2d20 System
Year Zero Engine
Industry News
Reviews
Dragon Reflections
White Dwarf Reflections
Columns
Weekly Digests
Weekly News Digest
Freebies, Sales & Bundles
RPG Print News
RPG Crowdfunding News
Game Content
ENterplanetary DimENsions
Mythological Figures
Opinion
Worlds of Design
Peregrine's Nest
RPG Evolution
Other Columns
From the Freelancing Frontline
Monster ENcyclopedia
WotC/TSR Alumni Look Back
4 Hours w/RSD (Ryan Dancey)
The Road to 3E (Jonathan Tweet)
Greenwood's Realms (Ed Greenwood)
Drawmij's TSR (Jim Ward)
Community
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions, OSR, & D&D Variants
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Resources
Wiki
Pages
Latest activity
Media
New media
New comments
Search media
Downloads
Latest reviews
Search resources
EN Publishing
Store
EN5ider
Adventures in ZEITGEIST
Awfully Cheerful Engine
What's OLD is NEW
Judge Dredd & The Worlds Of 2000AD
War of the Burning Sky
Level Up: Advanced 5E
Events & Releases
Upcoming Events
Private Events
Featured Events
Socials!
EN Publishing
Twitter
BlueSky
Facebook
Instagram
EN World
BlueSky
YouTube
Facebook
Twitter
Twitch
Podcast
Features
Top 5 RPGs Compiled Charts 2004-Present
Adventure Game Industry Market Research Summary (RPGs) V1.0
Ryan Dancey: Acquiring TSR
Q&A With Gary Gygax
D&D Rules FAQs
TSR, WotC, & Paizo: A Comparative History
D&D Pronunciation Guide
Million Dollar TTRPG Kickstarters
Tabletop RPG Podcast Hall of Fame
Eric Noah's Unofficial D&D 3rd Edition News
D&D in the Mainstream
D&D & RPG History
About Morrus
Log in
Register
What's new
Search
Search
Search titles only
By:
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions, OSR, & D&D Variants
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Menu
Log in
Register
Install the app
Install
Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.
Rocket your D&D 5E and Level Up: Advanced 5E games into space! Alpha Star Magazine Is Launching... Right Now!
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*Dungeons & Dragons
Wandering Monsters: You Got Science in My Fantasy!
JavaScript is disabled. For a better experience, please enable JavaScript in your browser before proceeding.
You are using an out of date browser. It may not display this or other websites correctly.
You should upgrade or use an
alternative browser
.
Reply to thread
Message
<blockquote data-quote="howandwhy99" data-source="post: 6203096" data-attributes="member: 3192"><p>It's not at all unique to me, but almost lost in our time. </p><p></p><p>Edwards is playing with Social Contract as sociologist's typically stipulate then. Unspoken agreements of "I won't hit you, if you don't hit me" are strategies in D&D and not ones you must keep. Make them rules and you lose the cooperation element of D&D for collaboration - a rule the players must follow to play. They have no choice, so those games aren't about cooperating at all, unlike D&D. </p><p></p><p>"The referee has to decide which PC a monster attacks." was what I was responding to. Add a hard return before Lareth.</p><p></p><p>And I say you are using fiction (like the illusion of some "shared" cloud space) to refer to fantasy, what comprises my imagination, but are claiming it is not in the world. Your thoughts are in the world. You can say they belong in some special "beyond reality" second reality, but I don't accept that. Fiction and non-fiction are actually labels about referential status, not the actuality of the referent. (Books are called fiction, but don't exist in a "higher order" state.) I'm talking about an actual imagined fantasy world. Narrative and fiction don't apply, though those terms for forms of expression often for sharing fantasy world.</p><p></p><p>The game of D&D requires all participants to have an imagination. If someone doesn't have one, then they won't be able to play. No one is referring to an unimagined state of affairs. At best you might be meaning a fictive.</p><p></p><p>Yeah, Einstein was an Eternalist. People called him a follower of Parmenides. I think he was more on my side than I am. (BTW, I'm not actually arguing for sides, just against absolutist certitudes like those put forth by the Forge, especially when it harms our hobby). </p><p></p><p>Searle's speech-act theory, added to by Barker, is considered quite radical actually. Though I like of what I read of Searle's, I don't see him as conclusively as you might (especially with how he treats A.I.). Also, considering you were talking about how truth in roleplaying is propositional a couple of days ago, I don't think you are fully on board with Barker either. ...But I admit I haven't read his book. So his understanding of propositions in regards to speech acts might be in line with your own. I don't know. </p><p></p><p>But here's the thing, D&D isn't about speech. Or storytelling. Those are necessary evils to get to the good stuff: Game Play. D&D is about playing the actual, imaginary game board in the DM's head by the players. Speech is used like any game players might need to if they didn't have hands to move their pieces and needed to tell another to do so. Their references are to an imagined fantasy world, but not a fiction, as the reference of those imagined items to our non-imaginary world never comes into play.</p><p></p><p>So, in my very real imagination I receive the image of your word from my computer screen. I attempt to comprehend them using the code of language called English I've also attempted to puzzle out throughout my life (even as it is changing). If we were conversing textually in French, I believe you that I would receive more "E" & "Q" symbols into my imagination. But by your supposition... we never do. Neither in or out of our imaginations does a French conversation occur. So your supposition is referring to a fictional (i.e. non-existent) state of affairs. My actual and not pretended questioning of you about what exists in your interior world is not me asking about fiction. For example, "How do you feel?" "What are you thinking about?" "If I say 'white elephant', what image comes to mind?" These are not ironic questions as I accept you have an interior -reality- as you are a living, breathing person.</p><p></p><p>Yes, but like any code where it isn't the language, syntax, or common use semantics, those communicating still need to have a shared language to address it. Because of that, like any simulated reality game, a good code designer begins with pieces of a believed actually pre-existing shared reality with his or her players. So we get dogs as well as lizard scales, fire, talons, and such made into dragons in D&D.</p><p></p><p>In any RPG, we can speak, gesture, draw, maneuver miniatures on a spatial map, even sculpt, and paint to better understand each other. There aren't many limits here. Of course, in my experience players are more likely to go the formal arts direction when demonstrating to me how their character is comprised. But those avenues are not closed off to me as DM when attempting to convey, say, the intricacies of Ravenloft Castle or how Marduk grasps his magical 3-handled, triple-bladed sword.</p><p></p><p>That's clearly a high level challenge you had no capacity to deal with, especially in cruddy one-shots like that. Con games were long considered the worst, but the fan base's lack of a shared proficiency in a single code is what I believe led Gygax to assert the (hit and miss rules of) AD&D to be "Official" for all conventions <em>and</em> the only "real" D&D. Not the way I would of gone, but he got his share of flack for it. </p><p></p><p>What your GM should have done is create a player-level appropriate challenge where failure didn't end in "game over", or at least have extra PCs on hand and a word of warning about the adventure's deadliness. </p><p></p><p>Games requiring game experience in my book are actually asking for level of player proficiency. Like you might sign up for Intermediate at a Chess convention. But RPGs are not well designed for convention play, at least not traditionally. They are way, way too long, but that's what is good about them. They are this awesome, long sustained build with repeated pay offs.</p><p></p><p>Little made after D&D in the 70's or early 80's was anything other than a different set of possible system or code suggestions for D&D put out as its own game. And none were all that clear on why they were designed as such (just like OD&D assumed a lot and had its share of designer uncertainty). It took a few years for adult, hard core gamers, the engineers and math-heads of the community to really figure out what this new game was. And by the time they did post-modern denial of pattern recognition hit hard and many dropped out of the hobby or went back to wargames. Once the game became "for kids" it popped out from behind the screen (in the mid-80's?) and those games following in D&D's footsteps were widely out of sorts and at best innovative code suggestions if implemented by a DM who knew what he or she was doing.</p><p></p><p>Let me know why you think that about Runequest and Traveller.</p><p></p><p>For the definition of Role Playing until the mid to late 1980s it isn't at all an RPG. It might be a game, but Ron Edwards worked very hard to redefine the community at large's understanding of what RPGs are (and therefore were) using the new and inaccurate for D&D definition of role playing to his advantage. Role playing means story telling a character dontchaknow? Not playing a role.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="howandwhy99, post: 6203096, member: 3192"] It's not at all unique to me, but almost lost in our time. Edwards is playing with Social Contract as sociologist's typically stipulate then. Unspoken agreements of "I won't hit you, if you don't hit me" are strategies in D&D and not ones you must keep. Make them rules and you lose the cooperation element of D&D for collaboration - a rule the players must follow to play. They have no choice, so those games aren't about cooperating at all, unlike D&D. "The referee has to decide which PC a monster attacks." was what I was responding to. Add a hard return before Lareth. And I say you are using fiction (like the illusion of some "shared" cloud space) to refer to fantasy, what comprises my imagination, but are claiming it is not in the world. Your thoughts are in the world. You can say they belong in some special "beyond reality" second reality, but I don't accept that. Fiction and non-fiction are actually labels about referential status, not the actuality of the referent. (Books are called fiction, but don't exist in a "higher order" state.) I'm talking about an actual imagined fantasy world. Narrative and fiction don't apply, though those terms for forms of expression often for sharing fantasy world. The game of D&D requires all participants to have an imagination. If someone doesn't have one, then they won't be able to play. No one is referring to an unimagined state of affairs. At best you might be meaning a fictive. Yeah, Einstein was an Eternalist. People called him a follower of Parmenides. I think he was more on my side than I am. (BTW, I'm not actually arguing for sides, just against absolutist certitudes like those put forth by the Forge, especially when it harms our hobby). Searle's speech-act theory, added to by Barker, is considered quite radical actually. Though I like of what I read of Searle's, I don't see him as conclusively as you might (especially with how he treats A.I.). Also, considering you were talking about how truth in roleplaying is propositional a couple of days ago, I don't think you are fully on board with Barker either. ...But I admit I haven't read his book. So his understanding of propositions in regards to speech acts might be in line with your own. I don't know. But here's the thing, D&D isn't about speech. Or storytelling. Those are necessary evils to get to the good stuff: Game Play. D&D is about playing the actual, imaginary game board in the DM's head by the players. Speech is used like any game players might need to if they didn't have hands to move their pieces and needed to tell another to do so. Their references are to an imagined fantasy world, but not a fiction, as the reference of those imagined items to our non-imaginary world never comes into play. So, in my very real imagination I receive the image of your word from my computer screen. I attempt to comprehend them using the code of language called English I've also attempted to puzzle out throughout my life (even as it is changing). If we were conversing textually in French, I believe you that I would receive more "E" & "Q" symbols into my imagination. But by your supposition... we never do. Neither in or out of our imaginations does a French conversation occur. So your supposition is referring to a fictional (i.e. non-existent) state of affairs. My actual and not pretended questioning of you about what exists in your interior world is not me asking about fiction. For example, "How do you feel?" "What are you thinking about?" "If I say 'white elephant', what image comes to mind?" These are not ironic questions as I accept you have an interior -reality- as you are a living, breathing person. Yes, but like any code where it isn't the language, syntax, or common use semantics, those communicating still need to have a shared language to address it. Because of that, like any simulated reality game, a good code designer begins with pieces of a believed actually pre-existing shared reality with his or her players. So we get dogs as well as lizard scales, fire, talons, and such made into dragons in D&D. In any RPG, we can speak, gesture, draw, maneuver miniatures on a spatial map, even sculpt, and paint to better understand each other. There aren't many limits here. Of course, in my experience players are more likely to go the formal arts direction when demonstrating to me how their character is comprised. But those avenues are not closed off to me as DM when attempting to convey, say, the intricacies of Ravenloft Castle or how Marduk grasps his magical 3-handled, triple-bladed sword. That's clearly a high level challenge you had no capacity to deal with, especially in cruddy one-shots like that. Con games were long considered the worst, but the fan base's lack of a shared proficiency in a single code is what I believe led Gygax to assert the (hit and miss rules of) AD&D to be "Official" for all conventions [I]and[/I] the only "real" D&D. Not the way I would of gone, but he got his share of flack for it. What your GM should have done is create a player-level appropriate challenge where failure didn't end in "game over", or at least have extra PCs on hand and a word of warning about the adventure's deadliness. Games requiring game experience in my book are actually asking for level of player proficiency. Like you might sign up for Intermediate at a Chess convention. But RPGs are not well designed for convention play, at least not traditionally. They are way, way too long, but that's what is good about them. They are this awesome, long sustained build with repeated pay offs. Little made after D&D in the 70's or early 80's was anything other than a different set of possible system or code suggestions for D&D put out as its own game. And none were all that clear on why they were designed as such (just like OD&D assumed a lot and had its share of designer uncertainty). It took a few years for adult, hard core gamers, the engineers and math-heads of the community to really figure out what this new game was. And by the time they did post-modern denial of pattern recognition hit hard and many dropped out of the hobby or went back to wargames. Once the game became "for kids" it popped out from behind the screen (in the mid-80's?) and those games following in D&D's footsteps were widely out of sorts and at best innovative code suggestions if implemented by a DM who knew what he or she was doing. Let me know why you think that about Runequest and Traveller. For the definition of Role Playing until the mid to late 1980s it isn't at all an RPG. It might be a game, but Ron Edwards worked very hard to redefine the community at large's understanding of what RPGs are (and therefore were) using the new and inaccurate for D&D definition of role playing to his advantage. Role playing means story telling a character dontchaknow? Not playing a role. [/QUOTE]
Insert quotes…
Verification
Post reply
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*Dungeons & Dragons
Wandering Monsters: You Got Science in My Fantasy!
Top