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Worlds of Design: Golden Rules for RPGs
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<blockquote data-quote="EzekielRaiden" data-source="post: 9042219" data-attributes="member: 6790260"><p>The point is that every commanding officer is <strong>absolutely guaranteed</strong> to face choices that have no clear good answer, which involve conflicting values (e.g. "the lives of my ship and crew" vs "the lives of innocent civilians"), and being forced to face such choices prepares an aspiring officer to make other hard decisions from the command seat. TNG actually taught this lesson in an even better way when (then-)Lieutenant Commander Troi took the bridge officer's test and repeatedly failed, before finally succeeding: she was forced to make the difficult decision to send her good friend (IIRC Geordi) to his effectively certain death in order to prevent the destruction of the ship and the loss of everyone on it. A smaller-scale no-win scenario, that is also <em>much</em> more likely to actually happen on a vessel exploring deep space and which frequently encounters the bizarre and dangerous. Had Commander Troi learned that the "correct" response was to always find the loophole in the simulation, she would not actually have gotten the extremely important lesson that sometimes, commanding officers must put the good of the ship ahead of their personal feelings.</p><p></p><p></p><p>This is certainly the more <em>aspirational</em> message. And sometimes that is in fact the best response. But, to steal from SMBC, it's good to remember the Falling Problem: If you were thrown out of a plane with no parachute, you could quite easily determine how long it would take to reach the ground (perhaps even without a calculator!), what kinetic energy you would have, etc. That knowledge would not give you the ability to <em>prevent</em> the death resulting from that impact. Few things are too hard (especially in a post-scarcity technobabble society like the Federation)--many things are too <em>fast</em>.</p><p></p><p>Sometimes, you don't have the <em>time</em> to outwit the situation, even if an outwitting option theoretically exists. Sometimes, you must accept that, within whatever limits you personally have, you don't get to take a third option. People in charge, such as commanding officers, are especially in need of preparation for those exact moments.</p><p></p><p>Because it's only by surviving enough of those no-win scenarios that we can eventually build new options that <em>can</em> win.</p><p></p><p></p><p>Certainly. And if the <em>Kobayashi Maru</em> scenario resulted in the <em>actual</em> deaths of many people, then it would be a horrible thing indeed. The fact that it <em>is</em> a simulation, however, is what enables it to work. Or, at least, it <em>did</em> before the secret got out; in Trek canon, after Kirk infamously broke it, the fact that it was a no-win scenario eventually became common knowledge, which eliminates its value as a teaching tool. Some of the expanded universe stuff (aka questionable canonicity) even claims that it still exists...as an exercise for <em>engineers</em> trying to find new and creative ways to break it.</p><p></p><p><em>Kobayashi Maru</em> is not meant to be fun. It is not meant to be rewarding. It is not meant to be instructive on how you <em>should</em> deal with any particular situation. It is solely meant to (a) examine what an aspiring captain would do under dire circumstances, and (b) teach said aspiring captain that "you don't always get what you want, but if you try sometimes, you just might find, you get what you need."</p><p></p><p>I, personally, am quite fond of the "solutions" chosen by Hikaru Sulu and Mackenzie Calhoun. The former elected not to mount a rescue at all (but had to deal with a bridge mutiny as a result of his choice.) The latter elected to <em>destroy</em> the <em>Kobayashi Maru</em>, claiming that it was <em>obviously</em> a trap, and even if it <em>weren't</em> a trap and actually did have civilians on board, a quick death would spare them the terrors of being prisoners of war.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="EzekielRaiden, post: 9042219, member: 6790260"] The point is that every commanding officer is [B]absolutely guaranteed[/B] to face choices that have no clear good answer, which involve conflicting values (e.g. "the lives of my ship and crew" vs "the lives of innocent civilians"), and being forced to face such choices prepares an aspiring officer to make other hard decisions from the command seat. TNG actually taught this lesson in an even better way when (then-)Lieutenant Commander Troi took the bridge officer's test and repeatedly failed, before finally succeeding: she was forced to make the difficult decision to send her good friend (IIRC Geordi) to his effectively certain death in order to prevent the destruction of the ship and the loss of everyone on it. A smaller-scale no-win scenario, that is also [I]much[/I] more likely to actually happen on a vessel exploring deep space and which frequently encounters the bizarre and dangerous. Had Commander Troi learned that the "correct" response was to always find the loophole in the simulation, she would not actually have gotten the extremely important lesson that sometimes, commanding officers must put the good of the ship ahead of their personal feelings. This is certainly the more [I]aspirational[/I] message. And sometimes that is in fact the best response. But, to steal from SMBC, it's good to remember the Falling Problem: If you were thrown out of a plane with no parachute, you could quite easily determine how long it would take to reach the ground (perhaps even without a calculator!), what kinetic energy you would have, etc. That knowledge would not give you the ability to [I]prevent[/I] the death resulting from that impact. Few things are too hard (especially in a post-scarcity technobabble society like the Federation)--many things are too [I]fast[/I]. Sometimes, you don't have the [I]time[/I] to outwit the situation, even if an outwitting option theoretically exists. Sometimes, you must accept that, within whatever limits you personally have, you don't get to take a third option. People in charge, such as commanding officers, are especially in need of preparation for those exact moments. Because it's only by surviving enough of those no-win scenarios that we can eventually build new options that [I]can[/I] win. Certainly. And if the [I]Kobayashi Maru[/I] scenario resulted in the [I]actual[/I] deaths of many people, then it would be a horrible thing indeed. The fact that it [I]is[/I] a simulation, however, is what enables it to work. Or, at least, it [I]did[/I] before the secret got out; in Trek canon, after Kirk infamously broke it, the fact that it was a no-win scenario eventually became common knowledge, which eliminates its value as a teaching tool. Some of the expanded universe stuff (aka questionable canonicity) even claims that it still exists...as an exercise for [I]engineers[/I] trying to find new and creative ways to break it. [I]Kobayashi Maru[/I] is not meant to be fun. It is not meant to be rewarding. It is not meant to be instructive on how you [I]should[/I] deal with any particular situation. It is solely meant to (a) examine what an aspiring captain would do under dire circumstances, and (b) teach said aspiring captain that "you don't always get what you want, but if you try sometimes, you just might find, you get what you need." I, personally, am quite fond of the "solutions" chosen by Hikaru Sulu and Mackenzie Calhoun. The former elected not to mount a rescue at all (but had to deal with a bridge mutiny as a result of his choice.) The latter elected to [I]destroy[/I] the [I]Kobayashi Maru[/I], claiming that it was [I]obviously[/I] a trap, and even if it [I]weren't[/I] a trap and actually did have civilians on board, a quick death would spare them the terrors of being prisoners of war. [/QUOTE]
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