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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Dethklok" data-source="post: 6243962" data-attributes="member: 6746469">To a certain degree, RPGs are a matter of taste and personal preference. We all know this. But throughout discussions on games with gamers, I almost always find that the attitudes I take for granted are so rare as to be virtually unknown. And most people's typical idea about how much complexity is a good, rarely gets defended, let alone explained to me. So I want to explain my attitude here, and maybe have a discussion about it.At the front page of ENworld right now, you can see a guy with an animated expression talking about Dungeons and Dragons, insisting that "the game can literally be anything you want," and that "anyone who has ever played in a childhood imagination game like, I dunno a tea party, knows how to play the game."This should be totally true.The unfortunate fact is that it's totally wrong.I don't know anyone else who plays with nothing but a blackboard, chalk, and a d20. I don't find people outside my gaming group who sit down outside with paper and coins and a lantern and just play. They never do. They need books. Not one, but many, books plural, full of instructions to tell them how to use their imaginations. They also need pots of dice, and miniature figures, and character sheets - oh, the character sheets they need. Not character cards, character concepts, character themes, or even character sheets in the singular with each player having one sheet. No we're talking about multiple forms filled in and stapled together like a job application or this year's taxes.That almost all of you reading this find that kind of thing fun is something I realize. I get it. I do see that it is indeed true that most of you derive pleasure from all these rules and complications. But I want to at least point out that all of this* is expensive,* is time consuming to learn about,* slows your games down,* limits what you can do, and* creates confusion.I play to have an active, immersive, aesthetic, creative experience. I want to be taken away to another place, another time, and explore the beauty, and danger, and terror, and adventure and romance and glory and awe of another world.For me, that is the whole idea of roleplaying.And it seems obvious to me that complicated initiative protocols do not facilitate this. Things like mood music, a few candles, and the occasional illustration are what make this work. If you spend all your money, time, and energy on rules, you can't set up any atmosphere - you can't make a game that I want to play.</blockquote>

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