I've been thinking about this a lot. I am diverse in my game interests, however there is one thing I like about older systems. Instead of the style of an attack being announced before combat - in 4e you might call the name of your Daily - in simpler versions it's kind of up to the player to describe his attack if he so chooses. Since attacks are as basic as rolling a d20, there's not a lot to distract a player - cognitively speaking - from coming up with something creative on the fly.
In a sense, the lacks of heavy number crunching inspires more commentary and narrative.
But now I have rambled. Welcome to the blog-o-rama-sphere
I am of two minds on the issue. On the one hand, treating the results of a combat round as fodder for creating a narrative is a useful way of approaching a roleplaying game's combative elements. On the other hand, though, using combat as a source of events to generate that can then be incorporated into a narrative is another useful method of approach. I suppose that it really comes down to the preferences of the gamers involved. Some groups may prefer the more sedate rhythm but detailed event generation of Hârnmaster, while others prefer the rapidly paced but loosely defined method of 0E. Individuals, of course, will favor one or the other, or have no preference. It may depend on how important combat is in the post-gaming narrative. Those who want to present combat in detail may prefer (seemingly paradoxically) the more abstracted system, as it is more open to creative license in constructing the narrative. Those whose tastes run more to interpersonal stories may prefer a detailed combat system, since the results give more concrete elements for the characters in the post-gaming narrative to play against.
But this all depends on my thinking about narratives, which includes any means of telling other people about what happened, as an after-the-fact construction based on random events generated during the game proper. Thus, the interest I have in this cartoon, to come full circle.
I've been thinking about this a lot. I am diverse in my game interests, however there is one thing I like about older systems. Instead of the style of an attack being announced before combat - in 4e you might call the name of your Daily - in simpler versions it's kind of up to the player to describe his attack if he so chooses. Since attacks are as basic as rolling a d20, there's not a lot to distract a player - cognitively speaking - from coming up with something creative on the fly.
ReplyDeleteIn a sense, the lacks of heavy number crunching inspires more commentary and narrative.
But now I have rambled. Welcome to the blog-o-rama-sphere
I am of two minds on the issue. On the one hand, treating the results of a combat round as fodder for creating a narrative is a useful way of approaching a roleplaying game's combative elements. On the other hand, though, using combat as a source of events to generate that can then be incorporated into a narrative is another useful method of approach. I suppose that it really comes down to the preferences of the gamers involved. Some groups may prefer the more sedate rhythm but detailed event generation of Hârnmaster, while others prefer the rapidly paced but loosely defined method of 0E. Individuals, of course, will favor one or the other, or have no preference. It may depend on how important combat is in the post-gaming narrative. Those who want to present combat in detail may prefer (seemingly paradoxically) the more abstracted system, as it is more open to creative license in constructing the narrative. Those whose tastes run more to interpersonal stories may prefer a detailed combat system, since the results give more concrete elements for the characters in the post-gaming narrative to play against.
ReplyDeleteBut this all depends on my thinking about narratives, which includes any means of telling other people about what happened, as an after-the-fact construction based on random events generated during the game proper. Thus, the interest I have in this cartoon, to come full circle.