It also occurred to me that I was referencing "All the boys but my Johnny are marching out of step" in what I wrote. Perhaps I gave too much background data on myself, perhaps this discussion is too old a subject to be of interest anymore. It's easy to forget, in the immediacy of blogs and livejournals, that we don't actually know the person we're talking to, and if a face to face conversation, we would speak slowly, and not in torrents of data.
About three weeks ago I stayed with my friend Cliff. He ran a very simple one-one-one RPG (using a system called Savage Worlds that had a neat nice mechanic and too many skills). It was a very simple scenario, basically, a raid on a baddies tower. It lastest about three hours. At the end of it I said "Gosh! I'd forgotten how much fun that is."
Of course, doing very simple scenarios would get boring after a while.
No time to write any more. I really want to finish "Knights of the Old Republic" this weekend....
Role-play games are easy to get into. As a new player the rules are as follows – Tell the GM what you want to try to do. (Optional: The GM tells you to roll some dice.) The GM tells you what happened. Repeat.
When we, as human beings, enjoy something, we find out more about it. If you enjoyed reading a book you may seek out the next in the series, or any book by that author or another book on that subject.
So if you enjoy you early role-play experience you find out more. And children tend to have a lot of free time. So you may find yourself investigating the rules (and later deciding you prefer the challenge of GMing), or trying to plot your characters future progression, creating alternate characters or thinking about your current character and developing a backstory for them.
In addition, you spend time playing. These two functions, playing and thinking, lead to a greater level of detail. I’m not saying you do explore more mature themes, just there is greater content for your game and so more likely to touch on more than just simple hack and slay. A 20th level character will be more complex than a 1st level as they will have more skills, more equipment and a lived-through history.
When we are older and we look back on all the memories and notepads full of games we remember the details. We think let’s play again, because I enjoyed it. But I’m older than then, so I should be able to create something greater. Then we recall all the detail and think how do I re-create that?
And that is the mistake! The detail comes from playing and time. And sometimes, as older players, we don’t have the time. We have to accept that the game will be ‘lighter’, or ‘thinner’ than games we played as a child. It will be less intense.
It could explore mature themes, but in many ways is less likely too, as we only have the time for the instant hit.
"'At the end of it I said "Gosh! I'd forgotten how much fun that is.'"
The games I most enjoyed had the simplest rules, or I didn't know them. As layers of rules got added on, I gradually lost interest. I think to recapture that, simple systems would be best. (I have heard of Savage Worlds, by the way.) Games of late have lended themselves to rules-lawyering, and if I'm going to have to deal with rules adversarily, I prefer to do so where I can get paid. Maybe I'll try something simple like Everway next time. Thanks!
"No time to write any more. I really want to finish "Knights of the Old Republic" this weekend...."
*** The detail comes from playing and time. And sometimes, as older players, we don’t have the time. We have to accept that the game will be ‘lighter’, or ‘thinner’ than games we played as a child. It will be less intense. *****
This is good advice, and I appreciate it. Thanks!
"It could explore mature themes, but in many ways is less likely too, as we only have the time for the instant hit."
I'll think more on the "simpler rules" idea for next time, also.
I had your old site bookmarked, and check in every once in a while. It seems somewhat rude to be reading your blog without letting you know about it, so I'm just checking in.
Actually, it feels somewhat rude to be reading your blog. You obviously know most of the people who are commenting, and it's rather like eavesdropping. Reading your other site was much less personal, in a way. On the other hand, this is public. So, I split the difference, and let you know that your conversaitions are being read by a total stranger.
It occurs to me, rereading this, that I now sound like a cyberstalker. Yet intense staring at the screen doesn't suggest a different way to word things.
>I had your old site bookmarked, and check in every >once in a while. It seems somewhat rude to be reading >your blog without letting you know about it, so I'm >just checking in.
Not especially: really, the blog is just the old page in a more convenient format, although with (I hope) more updates and (therefore) less polished stuff.
>Actually, it feels somewhat rude to be reading your >blog.
Wha?
>You obviously know most of the people who are >commenting,
About 50/50, I would have said.
>and it's rather like eavesdropping.
Odd comment, if I can say so: my only reason for putting stuff online is I have that particular kind of vanity which is gratified when people read stuff which I write.
>Reading your other site was much less personal, in a >way. On the other hand, this is public. So, I split >the difference, and let you know that your >conversaitions are being read by a total stranger.
As I say, that's the whole point.
//When I used to do fanzines, one occassionally got feedback along the lines of "I don't submit letters to the Aslan letter-page. It's so cliquey. It only prints letters from the kinds of people who write letters to the Aslan letter-page...."//
>It occurs to me, rereading this, that I now sound like >a cyberstalker.
My favorite people to GM for, especially now that I am older and have far less time, are those who don't actually know the rules and wouldn't waste the money to by a manual or the time to read one. My favorite guy to GM for is my business partner Curtis, who after about 5 years of playing, when asked to roll a skill check or a ‘to hit’ roll, still holds up a handful of differently shaped dice like the tourist asked to pay in foreign currency. Playing without regard for the rules more closely resembles the 'let's pretend' that we played as kids. (I think Andrew said that in his essay it's been a while since I read it)
I recall somebody (might have been Lewis) once allude to a middle period of the mundane between being able to believe in fairy stories as a child and being able to believe in them as an old person. So I have hope that I will be able to play role playing games and really enjoy them like I did when I was a kid again some day.
On the chance that google will let you know that someone has posted in a topic this old:
I can't find your old site. I was googling for it because I wanted something pithy to point a fan boy too. All the links that google was finding were dead, as is the on in this post and the one on your front page.
I promise that I've poked around here, looking for the post that explains why the old site has gone the way of all things worth while on the internet (it was not supported by the revenues of a cybersex/porn venture), but I can't find it.
So I'm posting. Are your old essays and reveiws still out there somewhere?
10 comments:
It also occurred to me that I was referencing "All the boys but my Johnny are marching out of step" in what I wrote. Perhaps I gave too much background data on myself, perhaps this discussion is too old a subject to be of interest anymore. It's easy to forget, in the immediacy of blogs and livejournals, that we don't actually know the person we're talking to, and if a face to face conversation, we would speak slowly, and not in torrents of data.
Mack
Very short comment.
About three weeks ago I stayed with my friend Cliff. He ran a very simple one-one-one RPG (using a system called Savage Worlds that had a neat nice mechanic and too many skills). It was a very simple scenario, basically, a raid on a baddies tower. It lastest about three hours. At the end of it I said "Gosh! I'd forgotten how much fun that is."
Of course, doing very simple scenarios would get boring after a while.
No time to write any more. I really want to finish "Knights of the Old Republic" this weekend....
Here are some of my thoughts and opinions.
Role-play games are easy to get into. As a new player the rules are as follows –
Tell the GM what you want to try to do. (Optional: The GM tells you to roll some dice.) The GM tells you what happened. Repeat.
When we, as human beings, enjoy something, we find out more about it. If you enjoyed reading a book you may seek out the next in the series, or any book by that author or another book on that subject.
So if you enjoy you early role-play experience you find out more. And children tend to have a lot of free time. So you may find yourself investigating the rules (and later deciding you prefer the challenge of GMing), or trying to plot your characters future progression, creating alternate characters or thinking about your current character and developing a backstory for them.
In addition, you spend time playing. These two functions, playing and thinking, lead to a greater level of detail. I’m not saying you do explore more mature themes, just there is greater content for your game and so more likely to touch on more than just simple hack and slay. A 20th level character will be more complex than a 1st level as they will have more skills, more equipment and a lived-through history.
When we are older and we look back on all the memories and notepads full of games we remember the details. We think let’s play again, because I enjoyed it. But I’m older than then, so I should be able to create something greater. Then we recall all the detail and think how do I re-create that?
And that is the mistake! The detail comes from playing and time. And sometimes, as older players, we don’t have the time. We have to accept that the game will be ‘lighter’, or ‘thinner’ than games we played as a child. It will be less intense.
It could explore mature themes, but in many ways is less likely too, as we only have the time for the instant hit.
"'At the end of it I said "Gosh! I'd forgotten how much fun that is.'"
The games I most enjoyed had the simplest rules, or I didn't know them. As layers of rules got added on, I gradually lost interest. I think to recapture that, simple systems would be best. (I have heard of Savage Worlds, by the way.) Games of late have lended themselves to rules-lawyering, and if I'm going to have to deal with rules adversarily, I prefer to do so where I can get paid. Maybe I'll try something simple like Everway next time. Thanks!
"No time to write any more. I really want to finish "Knights of the Old Republic" this weekend...."
Hope that was enjoyable.
Mack
www.livejournal.com/~mackatlaw
***
The detail comes from playing and time. And sometimes, as older players, we don’t have the time. We have to accept that the game will be ‘lighter’, or ‘thinner’ than games we played as a child. It will be less intense.
*****
This is good advice, and I appreciate it. Thanks!
"It could explore mature themes, but in many ways is less likely too, as we only have the time for the instant hit."
I'll think more on the "simpler rules" idea for next time, also.
Mack
This post has nothing to do with gaming, sorry.
I had your old site bookmarked, and check in every once in a while. It seems somewhat rude to be reading your blog without letting you know about it, so I'm just checking in.
Actually, it feels somewhat rude to be reading your blog. You obviously know most of the people who are commenting, and it's rather like eavesdropping. Reading your other site was much less personal, in a way. On the other hand, this is public. So, I split the difference, and let you know that your conversaitions are being read by a total stranger.
It occurs to me, rereading this, that I now sound like a cyberstalker. Yet intense staring at the screen doesn't suggest a different way to word things.
Carry on.
J
>I had your old site bookmarked, and check in every >once in a while. It seems somewhat rude to be reading >your blog without letting you know about it, so I'm >just checking in.
Not especially: really, the blog is just the old page in a more convenient format, although with (I hope) more updates and (therefore) less polished stuff.
>Actually, it feels somewhat rude to be reading your >blog.
Wha?
>You obviously know most of the people who are >commenting,
About 50/50, I would have said.
>and it's rather like eavesdropping.
Odd comment, if I can say so: my only reason for putting stuff online is I have that particular kind of vanity which is gratified when people read stuff which I write.
>Reading your other site was much less personal, in a >way. On the other hand, this is public. So, I split >the difference, and let you know that your >conversaitions are being read by a total stranger.
As I say, that's the whole point.
//When I used to do fanzines, one occassionally got feedback along the lines of "I don't submit letters to the Aslan letter-page. It's so cliquey. It only prints letters from the kinds of people who write letters to the Aslan letter-page...."//
>It occurs to me, rereading this, that I now sound like >a cyberstalker.
Not remotely.
My favorite people to GM for, especially now that I am older and have far less time, are those who don't actually know the rules and wouldn't waste the money to by a manual or the time to read one. My favorite guy to GM for is my business partner Curtis, who after about 5 years of playing, when asked to roll a skill check or a ‘to hit’ roll, still holds up a handful of differently shaped dice like the tourist asked to pay in foreign currency.
Playing without regard for the rules more closely resembles the 'let's pretend' that we played as kids. (I think Andrew said that in his essay it's been a while since I read it)
I recall somebody (might have been Lewis) once allude to a middle period of the mundane between being able to believe in fairy stories as a child and being able to believe in them as an old person. So I have hope that I will be able to play role playing games and really enjoy them like I did when I was a kid again some day.
On the chance that google will let you know that someone has posted in a topic this old:
I can't find your old site. I was googling for it because I wanted something pithy to point a fan boy too. All the links that google was finding were dead, as is the on in this post and the one on your front page.
I promise that I've poked around here, looking for the post that explains why the old site has gone the way of all things worth while on the internet (it was not supported by the revenues of a cybersex/porn venture), but I can't find it.
So I'm posting. Are your old essays and reveiws still out there somewhere?
Thanks.
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