Lee Short (![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small} losrpg) wrote,@ 2005-11-30 21:47:00 |
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On Freeform Play, Part the First
In this thread on John Kim's LJ, Mark W raises this question about freeform play in general and ADRPG in particular:
the case, there's _something_ going on that makes play work. It clearly isn't anything about the publicly acknowledged rules. Unless you can give me a better explanation, I'm going to believe that it's a culture.
When you're saying "it's a culture" here, I think you really mean something like "it's because each of the players is mentored by an experienced player," because otherwise it has no relevance to the topics in the parent thread [newcomers may wish to view that thread to understand this]. Saying that "it's a culture" doesn't really answer any of the important questions, because "the culture" includes so many things (including the rulebook). Certainly ADRPG is a culture. But Ultimate Frisbee and Rockclimbing are cultures too, and those cultures can't produce satisfying freeform RPG play. So the questions we have to answer are: what are the elements of ADRPG culture that allow it to produce satisfying freeform RPG play, are they unique to that culture, and how can we communicate them?
It's clearly the case that the ADRP rulebook has none of these answers, and that a good guidebook for freeform games would have them. The ADRP rulebook consists of X pages of solid advice on how to create a character sheet for a freeform Amber game, Y pages of NPC background, and Z pages of haphazard "how to GM like I do" advice -- none of which answers these questions.
Your answer to those questions appears to be "because each new player is trained in by experienced ADRP players." I disagree with this. When white-box D&D came out, new players somehow figured out how to get functional play out of it, or the hobby would be dead today. The only thing that white box D&D had that ADRPG lacks is a functional combat system. That combat system doesn't address any of the issues you've raised here: those holes existed in OD&D, too.
When I got my white box OD&D in junior high, there was literally not a single other person in our junior high who played the game. There was no one to mentor us, but somehow we figured it out with the two kids from down the street. We loved it; we played so much our mom was sure our grades would suffer.
I've got a bunch more to say, but it will have to wait for tomorrow.
In this thread on John Kim's LJ, Mark W raises this question about freeform play in general and ADRPG in particular:
the case, there's _something_ going on that makes play work. It clearly isn't anything about the publicly acknowledged rules. Unless you can give me a better explanation, I'm going to believe that it's a culture.
When you're saying "it's a culture" here, I think you really mean something like "it's because each of the players is mentored by an experienced player," because otherwise it has no relevance to the topics in the parent thread [newcomers may wish to view that thread to understand this]. Saying that "it's a culture" doesn't really answer any of the important questions, because "the culture" includes so many things (including the rulebook). Certainly ADRPG is a culture. But Ultimate Frisbee and Rockclimbing are cultures too, and those cultures can't produce satisfying freeform RPG play. So the questions we have to answer are: what are the elements of ADRPG culture that allow it to produce satisfying freeform RPG play, are they unique to that culture, and how can we communicate them?
It's clearly the case that the ADRP rulebook has none of these answers, and that a good guidebook for freeform games would have them. The ADRP rulebook consists of X pages of solid advice on how to create a character sheet for a freeform Amber game, Y pages of NPC background, and Z pages of haphazard "how to GM like I do" advice -- none of which answers these questions.
Your answer to those questions appears to be "because each new player is trained in by experienced ADRP players." I disagree with this. When white-box D&D came out, new players somehow figured out how to get functional play out of it, or the hobby would be dead today. The only thing that white box D&D had that ADRPG lacks is a functional combat system. That combat system doesn't address any of the issues you've raised here: those holes existed in OD&D, too.
When I got my white box OD&D in junior high, there was literally not a single other person in our junior high who played the game. There was no one to mentor us, but somehow we figured it out with the two kids from down the street. We loved it; we played so much our mom was sure our grades would suffer.
I've got a bunch more to say, but it will have to wait for tomorrow.
