Plume

@smallcreature

slowly recovering from birdsite

they/them (+ occasional it/its)
etsy.me/3BaDhdb

autistic queerthing from france. kitty fighting the puppy allegations. Asks welcome!

Icon: Komugi from Wonderful Precure
Header: Whisper of the Heart

Personal website

smallcreature.neocities.org/

Plume @smallcreature6/19/2024, 2:43 PM

@Zutaca

Twinkee @Twinkee6/18/2024, 8:00 PM

Saw that post going around with people complaining about DnD giving an example of their game having game mechanics.

Like, I get it. DnD sucks. But y'all, not every game needs to be a guided roleplay experience. Some of us are rules perverts and enjoying butting up against the restrictions and number crunching that games use.

If you don't want to interact with game mechanics, you can just roleplay. You don't need a game telling you how to do that. Join an improv group, learn about larps, get on a roleplay forum or discord server. There are so many ways to roleplay that don't involve game mechanics.

Scampir @Scampir6/19/2024, 4:20 AM

I am also cheering on more people as they write tactics ttrpgs, but

You don't need a game telling you how to do that

I actually disagree with this on the principle that games can be designed to do the important critical analytical work of uncovering what people like about a game's premise or reference material so that play can focus on it. Not everyone can really articulate what they want at the table and that games can have the vision and design to bring it to you shouldn't be dismissed.

You must log in to comment.

in reply to @Twinkee's post:

Twinkee @Twinkee6/18/2024, 8:17 PM

I don't wanna defend DnD, but like c'mon.

I'm really tired of the scene being so focused on games that tell you how to make a story or play a character.

The push for more tactical games in the last few years has been a godsend.

Stepnix @stepnix6/18/2024, 9:37 PM

i didn't look closely at it until just now but all of the rules in the example are all rules that you absolutely want everyone to understand before the game gets rolling. These aren't the intrusive "whoops I forget if there's a rule about that one" kind, this is all just. normal mechanics.

Twinkee @Twinkee6/18/2024, 9:40 PM

One person was complaining about having to take out character sheets.

Stepnix @stepnix6/18/2024, 9:42 PM

i'm gonna lose it

M A R M @virtualmarmalade6/19/2024, 5:39 AM

ok but what if the rules Kinda Suck and are Boring?
that's mainly what i complain about anyway lol

Twinkee @Twinkee6/19/2024, 5:40 AM

Complaining about bad rules is great. It's the folks complaining about a game being a game that annoyed me.

in reply to @Scampir's post:

Twinkee @Twinkee6/19/2024, 4:24 AM

I phrased that poorly. It's not that games shouldn't assist with that, it's that they're not the only avenue to pursue roleplaying.

Scampir @Scampir6/20/2024, 3:29 AM

I think you phrased the rest of the post poorly as well, because the impression overall is that you're critiquing a perceived overemphasis of roleplaying in tabletop roleplaying games. I get that you want more board gamey stuff (here I am phasing it poorly because I'd love to see what you enjoy about the activity in your own terms) but telling people to get their fill elsewhere ain't it.

Twinkee @Twinkee6/20/2024, 4:20 AM

If people are complaining about a game having game elements then they may not actually want a game. They SHOULD try other things and see if it's a better fit.

People shitting on things because it's not what they enjoy is incredibly fucking annoying.

Stepnix @stepnix6/19/2024, 4:33 AM

there's an additional complication where "narrative-focused game" can mean "game where mechanics intrude to provide narrative fuel" OR "game where mechanics take a backseat to the freeform RP" and it's not clear enough of the time which ones people are trying to talk about

Scampir @Scampir6/19/2024, 4:40 AM

I agree that there is often not enough clarification. For this post, the game here is the text. your latter example is a play approach, which one might describe as a "play culture" or "table culture."

Stepnix @stepnix6/19/2024, 4:51 AM

I did mean the priorities of the game-text itself. Systems designed to say "surprise! The rules demand you make a decision now that defines your character further" vs systems that go "here's resolution mechanics in case you're not sure what should happen next, but mostly we expect you to figure things out on your own"

Scampir @Scampir6/20/2024, 3:27 AM

Ok so if your point is just that other people use murky definitions then like, wtf am I supposed to do with that? Do you just want to complain in my comments about broader misunderstandings of the term narrative game?

I can give you one, because neither of these examples you've provided define the a narrative game. Narrative games are characterized as games wherein the randomization mechanic determines who gets narrative control over the consequences of the actions of a character.

octaNe is a good example of this at it's most bare.

Pinned Tags