Comments | trenchcloak: (: If I were king of the forest . . . .

trenchcloak

(: If I were king of the forest . . . .

Nov 10, 2004 22:30

In many role-playing games, one person has the job of creating an environment were other people who doesn't work together can learn about the world, improve themselves, and steal coin, goods and items from the hands of their perceived adversaries. It is to include challenges to overcome easily-defeatable evils through force of arms, which ( Read more... )

Comments 5

thekat03 November 10 2004, 20:16:37 UTC

the reason we play rpg's is it's an escape, or a vacation from reality. it's not an attempt to create a new reality that we'd rather live in. we aren't trying to create and enter an idealized world. it's just supposed to be fun. think of it like Tom and Jerry... if that were real, it would be awfully mean of Jerry to pick on Tom as much as he does, when Tom's just trying to do what cats do: catch and play with and eat mice. However, it's just a cartoon, so it's funny.

as to why it feels like you are running a daycare center... tod and i just haven't grown up yet ;)

~ todkat

gwacie November 11 2004, 05:55:13 UTC

Adversity and conflict are what make it fun... but if the adversity or conflict are insurmountable, it becomes frustrating or un-fun. So you have a delicate ballance to maintain between hard enough to be fun, but easy enough to be beat-able.

And normally intelligent, idealistic and well-socialized people loose a lot of those abilities when given 20-sided dice. ;)

(: A second parallel trenchcloak November 11 2004, 06:48:03 UTC

It occurs to me that parenting is similar to gaming in many ways. One in control is teaching others to play well, find
interests, and otherwise interact with the world.

Nice place to visit... oogby November 11 2004, 08:50:38 UTC

Fantasy worlds are funny things.

Take a look at my favorite games and movies and what have you. While I don't create the universes depicted in these, I do choose which things to spend my time on, in a sense exercising some control over my environment:

Do I want to live in a place where large furry monsters help me plant gardens (Totoro), where odd machines always need fixing, but there are never any deadlines (Myst), or where I'm constantly doing favors for random aliens so they'll like me (Starship Catan)? Of course not.

However, I think it's important to get at the root of the fantasy, even though when they're taken literally they're completely absurd. All of these worlds having a lot in common: they're all very non-confrontational and non-violent. They represent a little something I wish the world was more of, and in the end, I think taking them to a completely illogical extreme isn't so bad... so long as you realize how illogical it all really is. :)

tulzscha November 11 2004, 18:39:50 UTC

Well... I think it has to do with the fact that you're in charge of a party of "adventurers" - i.e., people who run around expressly to look for stuff to break and people to thwart. In order for it to be an accurate depiction of real life, say, the party ought to be a group of blue-collar smithy apprentices or something. There's not a whole lot of drama in the day-to-day existence of 98.5% of the populace - life's a really boring routine thing. Get up, work, complain that the boss is a jerk, go home, sleep. Would we want to play in a universe where we were doomed to be pawns, or would we rather have a certain degree of illusory control? Kindof the idea that the characters exist on the curve of the world, so we run into the curve events. And no, they don't have to be pathetic and weak. Some things should kill you if you play with them. (like being a level 5 wuss and wandering into a den of Morrowind vampires. oops.) Like me getting into an archery competition with the Talon - he's just better than me ( ... )