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Message: <blockquote data-quote="AbdulAlhazred" data-source="post: 7347734" data-attributes="member: 82106">I actually think that playing in a more player-centered way is naturally easier, assuming that people can drop any preconceived notions they acquired from previous games. I think that playing RPGs is a very 'passed down' kind of a thing. Its very engaging, but surprisingly hard to just invent (in a real RPG form like we have now, obviously kids play make-believe). Someone new to the game encounters, pretty much inevitably, D&D and people that are or have played D&D. The fundamentals of D&D play are garnered usually via other players going all the way back to the early days of the mid-70's, and spread widely via cons, modules, the presentation in the rules, and just 'stuff people heard' (if nothing else). Yet, if you introduce someone to RPGs in the form that [MENTION=42582]pemerton[/MENTION] or [MENTION=6682826]CH[/MENTION]auchou, or [MENTION=6696971]Manbearcat[/MENTION] play, its really no harder to pick up. Yes, players can be jerks and not play along, but classic D&D-style GM-centered play has that problem too! I do think there are actually ECONOMIC reasons why a game like D&D thrives though. You can't really write adventures, let alone detailed settings, for a game where the premise is basically "the players decide where to take things and the GM engages with their agenda." How do you write a module for that? I mean, yeah, you could generate some forms of material, encounter ideas, NPCs, even a degree of world building (but there's always a danger of meta-plot and getting too detailed and nailed-down here). It seems to me that the most characteristic type of product is the module, and I literally never buy them! I sort of appreciated Dungeon as a feature of DDI that I could steal a few elements from now and then, but mostly those were in the Compendium anyway (4e online database that holds all monsters, spells, NPCs, etc in it). I also think that narratively focused games tend to thrive more as niche products, and really not too many casual gamers delve into those. I don't think they're harder to play, its just there's a network effect and a bandwagon effect, and so a game where its fairly easy to replicate the same narrative reliably over and over and thus write a module that embodies it is the ideal vehicle for that. In that sense maybe playing 'classic' DM-centered games IS an easier way to find players, though I don't seem to have a hard time doing it when I'm motivated.</blockquote>

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