Comments on The Core Mechanic: Your Game World is (NOT) teh SuXXorz

@the_blunderbuss : WELCOME to The Core Mechanic an...

2008-08-21T21:09:00.000-04:00

@the_blunderbuss : WELCOME to The Core Mechanic and thanks for the comment! Just picked up your blog on my GOogle Reader the other day - looking forward to keeping up with it.

About your comment: I agree that a problem with 4E is that, at least for anyone NEW to the game, the term "role" could easily be confused to solely mean "tactical role" - thus changing the meaning of "role playing game". Now, we are all on the same page becuase "Role" to me means character role, like in a play, or story. ROle playing game is about playing a characters role in a story that you create with the DM - so called "shared creation" style of RPGs. WotC has been moving in the direction of pushing players into a fixed role, one in a scripted story that the DM is more like a director, rather than a co-author. I think this may be an effort to make the game more digestible to NEW players - the person who picks up the book on the shelves at Barnes & Noble and wonders "What's this 'D&D' game about? I've never heard of it" Maybe I'm wrong - but this just seems where they have been headed for yearszzzz, long before 4E was ever released.

Now, the GOOD thing about 4E and its presentation of "role" is that it is purely from a combat point of view and for NEW players it helps define what the main differences are between, say a Fighter and a Ranger. "Fighters, like Paladins, usually serve to defend the party - take the brunt of damage, etc". For new gamers - this is not a bad thing - its just that the rest of us old hats kind of scratch our heads: "Couldn't they think of some better term other than 'role'? It just casts the whole game as a mini's game."

thanks again for adding to the discussion.

Well, I actually had a different take on the artic...

2008-08-21T19:01:00.000-04:00

Well, I actually had a different take on the article per se and do agree with the poster... on these terms.

D&D, for most people that play it, is not *only* a rules system but is also the manifestation of that rules system withing a specific setting that contains certain iconic elements. So in that way, yes you can be misleading if you tell someone you'll be playing D&D without adhering to those unvoiced assumptions.

However, that does not mean (at all) that you *need* to go vanilla... at all. What you have in your hand is a book, filled with words that talks about a game. Grab the freaking book and do whatever is it that you want with it. The fact that there are a lot of elements of the setting (of a more generic kind) are pretty much coded into the system and into the minds of players world wide does not mean that you can create whatever you want with it and make it playable.

Is it still D&D? Probably not, but really... who cares?

And as a side note...

"(...) 4E seems to be, more than ever before, about knowing your Role. Your race and your class are flavor - backstory. The meat of your character is their Role."

And that's one of the main problems that I have with 4E. I want the meat of my character not to be a metagame tool.

@Donny : Yeah - for some reason i feel like people...

2008-08-19T17:35:00.000-04:00

@Donny : Yeah - for some reason i feel like people in boards and on the blogosphere are going through this "D&D IS DEAD, LONG LIVE D&D" phase. I just want to throw them in the drink. Isn't D&D about being creative and role playing? Actually... screw the "rules as written"... RPG gaming is about being creative, find a group, telling a story, and killing (make-believe) shit. The rules, whatever you system du jour is, are just a crutch - a guide - a manual - a recipe - a protocol. They are meant to be bent, expanded, and recast (as I call it). Recast the contents of the PHB and the MM and you have whatever campaign setting you want.

@ Anonymous : Welcome. See above! Glad you liked the post!

Thank you!I've been reading comments and concerns ...

2008-08-19T16:37:00.000-04:00

Thank you!

I've been reading comments and concerns about 4E since launch, and about half of them I can file in the category of "not enough imagination." It seems that a lot of otherwise incredibly creative RPGers, both DM and players, can't get around the fact that you can use your imagination to make almost anything in 4E 'fit' using the core rules.

WotC is even trying to shift gamers into thinking in 4E terms: instead of the 'vanilla' Fighter, you have a 'martial defender' that you can call anything you like - they happen to call it a Fighter. 4E seems to be, more than ever before, about knowing your Role. Your race and your class are flavour - backstory. The meat of your character is their Role.

Good concept! I have always liked the more "extre...

2008-08-19T14:50:00.000-04:00

Good concept! I have always liked the more "extreme" flavors of ice cream.

Dark sun and spelljammer were two of my favorites. The world of Avadnu (the Violet Dawn setting) or Termana (scarred lands) are others that would seem to defy the vanilla label.

Broad generalizations are handy and all, but they are limited by the fact that they are just generalizations.

Besides, isn't "breaking the mold" in anymore? I thought everyone was getting fed up with stereotypical fantasy crap?

Oh well, back to my cave...