Round-Table Discussion: Complexity in Gaming
Kevin hopped on Skype with Jason Morningstar, Judd Karlman, and Jonathan Tweet to discuss how the complexity of a rules system affects the narrative in RPG’s.
Relevant Links
- Judd Karlman
- Sons of Kyros
- Jason Morningstar
- Grey Ranks
- Jonathan Tweet
- D&D 3.5
- Anna Kreider
- Thou Art But A Warrior
- Ghoul
- Paladin
- 0-HP Rule
- Creative Agenda
- Burning Wheel
- Druid
- Unicorn
- Bull Rush
- Prime Time Adventures
- Ivory Tower Game Design
- GURPS Vehicles
- Champions
- FATE
- Competitive D&D
- Tim White
Crunchy Bits!
- Intro and Outro music provided by
Podcast: |
Tags: Anna Kreider, Bull Rush, Burning Wheel, Champions, Creative Agenda, D&D 3.5, Druid, FATE, Ghoul, Grey Ranks, GURPS, Jason Morningstar, Jonathan Tweet, Judd Karlman, Kevin, Monte Cook, Paladin, Prime Time Adventures, Sons of Kryos, Thou Art But A Warrior, Tim White, Unicorn
“It’s like doing taxes, ya’ know, but cooler”
priceless!
It… doesn’t sound like Mr. Tweet is having the same conversation as the rest of you. Otherwise, cool cast, lots of good talk here!
Yeah, I think he got a bit thrown off by the example and he turned it into a defense of D&D, which wasn’t really where I was going with that.
Hey guys,
Thanks for the podcast. Interesting discussion going on, and I thoroughly enjoyed it.
My thoughts on a few elements that came up…
Not naming your character until 2nd or 3rd level? Come on, that’s just lazy gaming. In a world of random name generators, there’s no excuse.
I also think that the players are *different* from the NPCs, in regards to level. Someone in the podcast made the point that they exist in a world of thousands of other “1st level characters” and they are a dime a dozen. That strips the characters of their powers and obligation to be heroes, in my opinion, since they are “a dime a dozen.” Why not populate the world with low level NPCs, such as artisans, warriors, and adepts, thus allowing the PCs to embark on epic adventures from the get-go? There’s no need to get a few levels under their belts before naming their characters and beginning an epic campaign.
This is a very weird discussion. I thank you Kevin to speaking on us “hippie” gamer’s side. I have this style of debates with some of my people from my gaming crew. Felt like everyone seemed to bow down to the D&D, perhaps they were intimidated or something. I felt like this conversation was totally one sided and the new aged style RPG side was blocked a lot. And when the others talked about Burning Wheel, I felt like never really played it or something. haha
I play games at both ends of the simulationist-narrativist spectrum, such as Pathfinder and Dresden Files Fate.
I will admit that I find the practically rule-free Fiasco a bit intimidating, but I could say the same of the chart-heavy Rolemaster. I call the space between a spectrum because it blends and every game and every group has a different balance of narrativist and simulationist elements.
RPG’s are a mix of telling-a-story and playing-a-game, and neither is bad-wrong-fun.