Quote from: Wandering Monster2) Magical or fantastic elements are only interesting in a setting when used in moderation.

Well, I'd say "Dying Earth"-style worlds have quite a lot of magic and fantastical elements, and it works out quite well. Sometimes magic gets used as a technology-replacement, sometimes it still remains unique and exotic.  

Quote from: Wandering Monster4) Wandering monster tables are a stupid idea.

Not if they're bound to a very specific area. The more generic they get, the more problems they cause.

Eleven, off the top of my head.  And one from my stomach.

From the Head:
1. Never play games with people who are looking for an excuse to get upset.

2. Self-conscious earnestness is the death of anything fun or interesting.

3. Make a thing as well and as cool as you can.  After you make a thing, let it go and let other people interpret it, and don't get pissed if they don't "get" it.  You made the thing - if your goal was for people to get it and some of them didn't, that's your fault.  If you want to focus on it as a fault.  And why should you care?

4. Struggle and true risk for the characters (physical and emotional) are what make gaming exciting.

4a. Setbacks and the occasional defeat make victory actually sweet.

5. Combat should be scary and deadly.

6. Magic should be rare and, well, magical.

7. Challenge is Good.

8. Well-played behavior trumps almost anything.

9. Well-played behavior in a kick-ass tactical setting trumps #8.

10. Players should have the ability to guide their characters' mental and physical growth in the direction they choose.

11. The Game should serve the Group, the Group shouldn't serve The Game.


From the Stomach:
1. Cheetos and Boxed Wine should only be combined once per campaign.  :eek:

1) There's a difference between telling a story and playing a simulation game.

2) Realism is a meaningful benchmark.

3) GMs can strive for impartiality if they like.

3a) RPGs can be simulation games, at least locally within a scenario if not across complete campaigns, if the GM is impartial.

4) The quickest way to lose my interest is to fill your game world with arbitrary, disconnected "special cases".

5) (4) happens more often with high-magic games.

6) The implied setting and mythology of D&D is a hopeless mishmash.

7) Fudging is bad.

Wandering monster tables are a GOOD idea, especially if tailored to the location, and the "pool" of monsters is finite.

Heh...

Let me see what I can come up with.

1) the Player is in charge of his character. No one else is in charge of his character, and no one else can tell the player how to play his character (with a raft of legalese to follow regarding applicablity of this credo to mind control, GM-ism and what have you...)

2) the GM is absofuckinglutely responsible for everything that isn't a player character. The quality of the GM may be subject to scrutiny based on the usage of this rule, but the rule itself is inviolable.

3) the designer, the writers of books and the fucking books themselves are NOT players at the table (again, legalese for games played by the designer et al...) and in no way trump rule one or rule two.

4) If you and the other players at the table, including the GM are having fun, then the game is good.  Period.  Morever: You are playing correctly by any objective measure (legalese: If the cops have to be called to your house, then I never said this, nobody read it, nobody can prove a thing....)

5) Simple game rules play faster than complex game rules but can grow old faster as well. The right balance between simple and complex is between you and your GM, the hordes of internet geeks have no say in the matter, no matter how many threads are started about it.

6) Levels and classes are completely wrongheaded for any RPG that isn't a video game.  The fact that video games use them so elegantly should be the first fucking clue for the latecomers to this realization. So there

I'm pretty much in agreement with Balbinus' post on all points.  And just about every other person who's posted their list.  In all cases, most especially with reference to the "human" element in any plot.

Not sure what more I can add, except:

The "G" is just as important as the "RP" when I'm playing an RPG.  I want to be challenged, whether I am a player or a GM.  There should be risks, rewards, and hard choices to make.

Everyone has to compromise.  You give up a little to give someone else a little more.  In the end, it makes for a better experience for all involved.  And "compromise" <> "have less fun."

Quote from: Spike4) If you and the other players at the table, including the GM are having fun, then the game is good.  Period.  Morever: You are playing correctly by any objective measure (legalese: If the cops have to be called to your house, then I never said this, nobody read it, nobody can prove a thing....)

:chestram:

Quote from: Settembrini1) RPGs are a historical category, derived from wargames
............................
5) The hobby is differentiated enough to be incompatible with each other

6) The only force holding that back is the histrocial personal overlap
............................
10) I appreciate Thematic gaming, but care for it as much as I care for the New Zealand Sailing Championship

11) I`m growing sick of having to read or hear about sailing championships from all over the world nowadays

This is something I've been thinking about a bit lately. So my question to you, Settembrini, is this: is there any place for somebody like me here? I'm starting to think not.

I'm pretty much over what you call 'adventure gaming' (been there, done that to death). I want something else.

To me, the activity we know as 'roleplaying' is, at its base, making up characters and doing imaginary things with them. I'm still doing this when I play My Life with Master. MLwM, then, is a roleplaying game with certain emphases. To me.

I'm not particularly invested in whether you think it's the same thing or not. I don't even care myself. I know what I like.

I'm unconnected to the vast majority of roleplayers, anyway. My enthusiasms, my tastes in entertainment, my political views, all sorts of things. In the end, it's no skin off my nose. There are real-life people with whom I can play what I like to play.

If you want me – and any others like me who may be hanging around – to fuck off, then I will. Your call. No hard feelings.

1. RPGs are games, and should be fun for everyone at the table to play.
2. Rules should be easy to learn. But offer depth of strategy.
3. Most "RPG Theory" I've read online offers less useful insight than the classic games of 20+ years ago.
4. Tom Moldvay Basic/Expert D&D was the best edition of the game so far.  Lots of great ideas in 3.x, but B/X is TIGHT.  Like a tiger.

1) I play RPGs to create unpredictable stories together with a group of friends(the most important element) using the rules as a means to that end.

2) Epic quests bore me - and most of the time, my players feel the same way about these kinds of quests - which doesn't mean that in some games they dont have any effect on the setting - they effect their world.

3) Games which establish an atmosphere, heavy on theme ....has a damn point of view even if I don't agree with it is what I look for.

3 (1) All my games have a subtext. Sometimes it's not acknowledge by the players, sometimes it is, but it's always there.

4) Just as I believe movies, books ect can inform us or challenge us about certain issues, I believe games can do the same thing.

5) My definition of fun and success - when the players are surprised by the growth of their characters after a campaign and were too engaged in the world/game to notice said growth. Looking back moments is one of my favourite aspects of rpgs.

There's more but I'll post it later.

Regards,
David R

1) I play games solely for fun. Otherwise, they aren't games - they're work.
2) What I find fun changes from time to time.
3) What I find fun and you find fun may be different, but before we argue, see #1.
4) I fucking hate anime, manga, J-horror, and martial arts movies. I don't find any of these sorts of things to be fun, and I actively avoid games that draw from these as influences. Those are deal-breakers. This should go without saying, but before you draw any conclusions, I assure you I have no animosity toward Asian people or cultures. Racism suxxor.
5) That being said, it doesn't mean that anything in #4 is innately bad or wrong. Just not my cup of tea. See #3.
6) There is room in my life for both Forge darlings and adventure gaming.
7) Part of the fun of gaming is the peripheral stuff: the clatter of dice, weird miniatures, banter among good friends.
It is the responsibility of all participants in a game to make sure that everyone is having fun.
9) I don't want to game with you if you're not somebody I'd normally hang out with.
10) Keep your politics out of my game.

What matters to me most about the hobby and is for me the true barometer of its health is enthusiasm. Mearls once described the internet hobby community as giving off a "low level but persistent negativity". I've realized that I'm just plain tired of that shit. When someone had an awesome time at the table and they're relating that to me and I can feel the energy and the fun that person had, that's fucking awesome. As long as people have that kind of fun, that it actually passes right though the computer screen and into your blood, the hobby will live on.

Now, there's a part of me that wishes there were more people who could get into it, and I do what I can when given the chance, but I have no illusions. This is a small hobby that for me seems to be largely populated by okay folks just looking to have clean, honest fun. Folks are allowed to dislike stuff, but my tolerance for people taking every free moment they got to snipe at someone else's fun, has grown low. If there was something morally deviant about it, I can understand, but most cases don't even come close.

Let's just have some fun folks, and let's pull that collective "low level but persistent negativity" stick out our ass.

Yeah, I'll buy that. I can sure see that a lot of my credo is negative.

Will have to ponder what that's all about...

1.  We're here to have a good time.
2.  Have a problem?  Bring it up.
3.  We're all adults, act like it.
4.  No more Chex Mix.  I am not fucking around here.

One note:  It's a lot easier to expound on what your don't like than about what you do like.  I agree, though, negativity gets old.

Quote from: fonkaygarry4.  No more Chex Mix.  I am not fucking around here.

Why you gotta hate on General Mills and their tasty treat?


Also, put me down as a potential subscriber to JamesV's newsletter.  The constant negativity in much of the discussion of RPGs is weird and wearying.  It's also more interesting to hear what people like and what they're positive about.