What is "railroading" to you (as a player)?

[CreamCloud0]

But what is the point of playing, say a horror game, if it is not scary? Do people not want to be at least a little bit scared while watching a horror film too?

i'd say no, they don't want to be scared, a game is not a movie and people engage with them in different ways, what i believe that people want from a horror TTG, rather than to be scared as such, is to invoke the tropes and scenarios of a horror movie onto their characters, whether they end up rising above the challenge and being the few survivors at the end who get to go back to their lives or to see them fail, becoming the ones who spiral into insanity and die hideously.

 

[Bill Zebub]

i'd say no, they don't want to be scared, a game is not a movie and people engage with them in different ways, what i believe that people want from a horror TTG, rather than to be scared as such, is to invoke the tropes and scenarios of a horror movie onto their characters, whether they end up rising above the challenge and being the few survivors at the end who get to go back to their lives or to see them fail, becoming the ones who spiral into insanity and die hideously.

I sort of get that....but it just doesn't feel like an RPG to me. Or, at least, it wouldn't seem to have anything to do with why I enjoy RPGs and find them different from other games.

I can imagine myself playing and enjoying a horror-themed board game, where you roll dice and move pieces, and turn over cards with cool artwork that describe tropes from the horror genre. "You witness a nameless thing from another dimension. Lose 1d6 Sanity." And that would be fun, and I would both laugh and fake groan when my character goes crazy and has to go to the Insane Asylum section of the board until whatever game mechanic gets me out again. I would play that game.

But it wouldn't feel like an RPG. EDIT: ...to me.

 

[Thomas Shey]

I sort of get that....but it just doesn't feel like an RPG to me. Or, at least, it wouldn't seem to have anything to do with why I enjoy RPGs and find them different from other games.

I can imagine myself playing and enjoying a horror-themed board game, where you roll dice and move pieces, and turn over cards with cool artwork that describe tropes from the horror genre. "You witness a nameless thing from another dimension. Lose 1d6 Sanity." And that would be fun, and I would both laugh and fake groan when my character goes crazy and has to go to the Insane Asylum section of the board until whatever game mechanic gets me out again. I would play that game.

But it wouldn't feel like an RPG.

I have to just note that there are plenty of people who, effectively, play RPGs as single-character board games where they get to define the character associate with the play piece and sometimes have discussions in character. The line you're drawing here is crossed back and forth all the time by some people, and has been since the start of the hobby.

 

[Bill Zebub]

I have to just note that there are plenty of people who, effectively, play RPGs as single-character board games where they get to define the character associate with the play piece and sometimes have discussions in character. The line you're drawing here is crossed back and forth all the time by some people, and has been since the start of the hobby.

Ummm...ok? I'm not sure what you think I was saying (or not saying but thinking?) such that this is meant to....something. I'm confused.

 

[Micah Sweet]

Ummm...ok? I'm not sure what you think I was saying (or not saying but thinking?) such that this is meant to....something. I'm confused.

I think he's saying that a lot of people disagree with you on what a role playing game feels like.

 

[Bill Zebub]

I think he's saying that a lot of people disagree with you on what a role playing game feels like.

Oh, ok. I thought we had established multiple times in this thread that we all have different preferences. I thought I was pretty explicit in saying that this is what it feels like to me.

EDIT: But re-reading, I only said "to me" the first time I used the word "feels". Not the second time. My bad.

 

[hawkeyefan]

I sort of get that....but it just doesn't feel like an RPG to me. Or, at least, it wouldn't seem to have anything to do with why I enjoy RPGs and find them different from other games.

Oh, ok. I thought we had established multiple times in this thread that we all have different preferences. I thought I was pretty explicit in saying that this is what it feels like to me.

So I think part of why comments like the first quoted above get push back is because of the second.

Like, if it’s already been established multiple times that we all have different preferences, then it would seem you actually do get what you’re responding to in the first. So then what’s the point of the comment? You’re not asking any questions to better understand someone else’s point of view. You’re just taking an opportunity to low-key point out how someone else’s preferences aren’t as good as yours.

 

[Bill Zebub]

So I think part of why comments like the first quoted above get push back is because of the second.

Like, if it’s already been established multiple times that we all have different preferences, then it would seem you actually do get what you’re responding to in the first. So then what’s the point of the comment? You’re not asking any questions to better understand someone else’s point of view. You’re just taking an opportunity to low-key point out how someone else’s preferences aren’t as good as yours.

Huh in both of the quoted statements I'm saying it's my experience, so I'm not sure where in there you are reading that "someone else's preferences aren't as good as" mine.

Nor do I understand why you are calling me out for trying to re-state my preferences in a new way, when pretty much everybody in this thread...including you...has done the same thing many, many times.

From my point of view this thread has been a gang pig-pile on Crimson Longinus and I with accusations of of inconsistency, hypocrisy, one-dimensional roleplaying, power-gaming, etc. etc. etc.

 

[pemerton]

To have fun playing a game that includes the tropes of the desired genre without necessarily getting personally uncomfortable.

When I watch Casablanca, I am moved by the unfolding of the relationship between Rick and Ilsa, even though I'm not in love with either character. And I enjoy the "beginning of a beautiful friendship" even though I'm not friends with those people.

When watching a horror movie, I'm drawn into the suspense and tension the protagonists are feeling, even though I'm not in any danger.

For me, playing a RPG is not wildly different, although the medium is not the same, and my orientation to the characters is different from that of a movie audience member.

I have seen posts in this thread that express concern that a mechanic might mandate an incongruous response from a PC. My view is that if the Sanity mechanic, or whatever else, is out-of-sync with the broader ways in which the fiction generates emotional responses, that's a sign of poor game design or poor gameplay: it's not a strike against the mechanics itself, any more than the fact that some films are terrible means we should reject all the techniques of film making (scripts, sets, directors, etc).

 

[pemerton]

The comparison of the play of games like CoC, Pendragon, Burning Wheel etc to boardgames is quite bizarre. Look at how people actually play those games, the way they establish characters, etc. The idea that players of these games are proponents of "hack and slash" play, or "roll dice because I don't care about the integrity of my character" play is completely ridiculous!