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<blockquote data-quote="Potocki" data-source="post: 9611173" data-attributes="member: 7051657">I agree with most of your post and your general philosophy expressed here, and I even broadly agree with this paragraph, but I think it misses something that's exemplified by this section. The &quot;randomization of ideas&quot; is, at its heart, the game. Although the negotiation, imagination, and storytelling are all key to the game as well, the game is all about dealing with unexpected events. Otherwise, it's just collaborative storytelling - which is a realm that a lot of rules-light RPGs definitely stray into, often with great results!But taking OSR and its offspring, the dice are there to force improvisation and clever storytelling, for both the DM and the players. They're also there to create true drama, which I would argue is also a key component of RPGs. Not to get too academic, but without the whims of the gods (of dice, in this case), true drama cannot exist. If my character survives by the skin of their teeth due to my DM being motivated to tell a fun story, or to prevent a TPK, or just because the game is going well and they don't want me to have to roll a new character, then there's no drama and no story. If they survive despite it all, thanks to a lucky roll (and perhaps the intervention of Fate), then that's drama, and a real story to tell.Of course, none of this really applies to the OP's post (which is strictly limited to OSR combat philosophy), but your post got me to think about this point. It's part of the general tug-of-war between rules-light and -heavy systems, and the debate over the reason we play RPGs at all.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Potocki, post: 9611173, member: 7051657"] I agree with most of your post and your general philosophy expressed here, and I even broadly agree with this paragraph, but I think it misses something that's exemplified by this section. The "randomization of ideas" is, at its heart, [I]the game[/I]. Although the negotiation, imagination, and storytelling are all key to the game as well, the [I]game [/I]is all about dealing with unexpected events. Otherwise, it's just collaborative storytelling - which is a realm that a lot of rules-light RPGs definitely stray into, often with great results! But taking OSR and its offspring, the dice are there to force improvisation and clever storytelling, for both the DM and the players. They're also there to create true drama, which I would argue is also a key component of RPGs. Not to get too academic, but without the whims of the gods (of dice, in this case), true drama cannot exist. If my character survives by the skin of their teeth due to my DM being motivated to tell a fun story, or to prevent a TPK, or just because the game is going well and they don't want me to have to roll a new character, then there's no drama and no story. If they survive [I]despite it all[/I], thanks to a lucky roll (and perhaps the intervention of Fate), then that's [I]drama[/I], and a real story to tell. Of course, none of this really applies to the OP's post (which is strictly limited to OSR combat philosophy), but your post got me to think about this point. It's part of the general tug-of-war between rules-light and -heavy systems, and the debate over the reason we play RPGs at all. [/QUOTE]

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