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Why do RPGs have rules?
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<blockquote data-quote="Bedrockgames" data-source="post: 9079145" data-attributes="member: 85555"><p>Sometimes our opinions and tastes get reduced to this category or this side of the discussion or that side. I can't speak for Rob but I think what I am about to say probably is something that will at least touch on some of his thoughts. For me it isn't so much about all the other stuff we layer onto the experience (the instantiation, exploration, immersion, mechanical understanding you point to) but doing the thing that first made RPG so wonderful for us. Not everyone is going to have had this be their foundational RPG experience, but for me it really does boil down to the fact that suddenly I was playing in a medium where I could really feel like I was there, the world faded away, and I could try to do anything. Up to that point, the closes I had experienced to that was video games, and there even games like Kings Quest fell far short of this. This was I could try anything and the GM had to respond. It was like a game with no limits and that is what I loved. I think both Rob and I have come to the conclusion that what made this work was the human referee adjudicating what you are trying to do through rulings (yes you can have a well made, even comprehensive system, but to truly be limitless you have to have rulings and the GM needs to be able to go beyond the rules when possible). What I say here really doesn't have much, in my opinion, to do with concerns about what you are simulating or emulating. It just has to do with the experience of the player (and that experience can exist in a range of approaches and styles, sandbox is just one that I find happens to fit it well). </p><p></p><p>From my very first session this was my experience and it is the thing that keeps me coming back to the table. It is also why I like a game like Hillfolk even though that is far from the kind of sandbox simulation style game Rob and I have been trying to shed light on here. That is a game much more interested in drama, but it still has that basic element of feeling like I am there and able to try anything I want (there is a sense of limitlessness to it).</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Bedrockgames, post: 9079145, member: 85555"] Sometimes our opinions and tastes get reduced to this category or this side of the discussion or that side. I can't speak for Rob but I think what I am about to say probably is something that will at least touch on some of his thoughts. For me it isn't so much about all the other stuff we layer onto the experience (the instantiation, exploration, immersion, mechanical understanding you point to) but doing the thing that first made RPG so wonderful for us. Not everyone is going to have had this be their foundational RPG experience, but for me it really does boil down to the fact that suddenly I was playing in a medium where I could really feel like I was there, the world faded away, and I could try to do anything. Up to that point, the closes I had experienced to that was video games, and there even games like Kings Quest fell far short of this. This was I could try anything and the GM had to respond. It was like a game with no limits and that is what I loved. I think both Rob and I have come to the conclusion that what made this work was the human referee adjudicating what you are trying to do through rulings (yes you can have a well made, even comprehensive system, but to truly be limitless you have to have rulings and the GM needs to be able to go beyond the rules when possible). What I say here really doesn't have much, in my opinion, to do with concerns about what you are simulating or emulating. It just has to do with the experience of the player (and that experience can exist in a range of approaches and styles, sandbox is just one that I find happens to fit it well). From my very first session this was my experience and it is the thing that keeps me coming back to the table. It is also why I like a game like Hillfolk even though that is far from the kind of sandbox simulation style game Rob and I have been trying to shed light on here. That is a game much more interested in drama, but it still has that basic element of feeling like I am there and able to try anything I want (there is a sense of limitlessness to it). [/QUOTE]
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