background of 4E D&D designers

ggroy · May 21, 2010, 07:40:10 PM

Quote from: jibbajibba;382679They had to do something but their move to fairness meant dropping academic rigor in favour of more interpretive data analysis. Now 50% of kids go to university but the number of people that can quote Virgil really has dropped.

Lastly ... when i was teaching A level Geogrpahy at a girls grammar school ('95) out of my 54 students 28 got an A grade. In the mock exam I had set and marked I gave 8 of them A grades. So yeah I guess standards keep on slipping.

Several of my former colleagues mentioned that what they cover in undergrad freshman year in engineering and the hard sciences at places like Cambridge and Oxford these days, is almost like "remedial" courses. Basically stuff which would have been done in the O-levels 20+ years ago, they have to spend more and more time reviewing.

They're frustrated that they have to teach students which are not very well prepared, even at Cambridge or Oxford.

Narf the Mouse · May 21, 2010, 08:03:33 PM

What's fair is the same standard for everyone. What's best is not treating people like idiots. What's their choice is whether they treat themselves like idiots.

Also, the truth will set you free - But the truth is often not pleasant. It doesn't have to be. Opinions matter not one whit.

jibbajibba · May 21, 2010, 08:11:45 PM

Quote from: Narf the Mouse;382689What's fair is the same standard for everyone. What's best is not treating people like idiots. What's their choice is whether they treat themselves like idiots.

Also, the truth will set you free - But the truth is often not pleasant. It doesn't have to be. Opinions matter not one whit.

Yeah but If I set a fair exam that only 2% of the population can pass what does that prove except to promote elitism.

All Souls just cancelled their famous one word exam after 150 odd years because they found that it didn't actually mean anything except to create an Uber-Uber-Elite from the uber-elite they already had.

Narf the Mouse · May 21, 2010, 09:07:54 PM

A fair one (IMO

) would be one they have a reasonable chance of passing if they put real effort in.

Settembrini · May 22, 2010, 01:48:30 AM

Quote from: jeff37923;382572I am trying to apply the logic of this to other games besides 4E and I think that the last thing you want is an expert in a non-gaming field to write material for a RPG. For example, Constantine Thomas (a degreed Planetary Scientist) used to write for GURPS:Traveller, GURPS: Transhuman Space, and often commented on Traveller related science subjects in various forums. The man is obviously an expert in the field of his degree, however when it comes to science fiction he often refused to consider the fiction half and instead concentrated on the science half to the exclusion of all else. This had the consequence of sucking the fun right out of the material, which is horribly bad for a game (even though it would be great for a college course).

Well he also sucked out all true and open-minded scientific approaches out of it. Also, total disregard for the humanities. Not contempt, but utter lack of consideration. If I ever met a science-and-only-science-nerd, it would be the fine EDG.

Anon Adderlan · May 22, 2010, 04:31:48 AM

I would think that designing an RPG requires an understanding of resource management, emergent properties, human behavior, and how ideas are communicated. And out of all the disciplines with well known degrees out there, I would think Economics, Biology, Psychology, and Communications (perhaps Acting?) are the most important in those regards.

Neither Mathematics nor English would have helped you design Chess or Go. It would have helped with Poker, but that game consists of nothing BUT statistics and bluffing. Every discipline provides a different set of viewpoints in which to base a game on.

RPGPundit · May 23, 2010, 10:47:12 AM

Quote from: jibbajibba;382693Yeah but If I set a fair exam that only 2% of the population can pass what does that prove except to promote elitism.

No, see, that's the entire problem with modern civilization: it has NO fucking understanding of the difference between "elitism" and "meritocracy". When you stop rewarding and encouraging merit, it should come as no fucking surprise to anyone that you will stop producing it. Civilization will fall, and the Chinese will eat us alive.

RPGPundit

RPGPundit · May 23, 2010, 10:48:29 AM

Anyways, clearly the best degree for a game designer to have is History.

RPGPundit

winkingbishop · May 23, 2010, 11:00:51 AM

I would think that if you brought a bunch of mathematicians to bear in writing an RPG, you'd end up with a game that is as much fun as a mathematics book. That is not to say that having an expert in the wings to check your maths is a poor idea, I would certainly approve of such thoroughness.

When it comes to actually writing the book itself though, shouldn't writers and designers take a cue from the field of journalism? It is a discipline that trains writers to capture information and clarity in as few words as possible.

I can read and enjoy Gygax for some reason (personal bias, I assume), but that doesn't mean I want all of my RPGs to be verbose.

Bloody Stupid Johnson · June 04, 2010, 07:58:36 PM

*Raise thread*
OK for 4e they probably only needed a mathematician. IMHO it really seemed that 4e was desperately missing a biologist of some stripe (or passable facsimile) - then there wouldn't have been Dragonboobs.
Also, Gygaxian Naturalism is cool.

Benoist · June 04, 2010, 08:23:22 PM

Quote from: Bloody Stupid Johnson;385881Also, Gygaxian Naturalism is cool.

Gygaxian Naturalism for people unfamiliar with Grognardia.

RPGPundit · June 05, 2010, 09:39:11 AM

Quote from: Benoist;385886Gygaxian Naturalism for people unfamiliar with Grognardia.

Wow. I didn't know we needed a term for "designing a fucking setting the right way".

RPGpundit

ggroy · June 05, 2010, 09:47:47 AM

If I was designing my own setting to be a published product, Gygaxian naturalism would make sense to do (by James Maliszewski's definition).

For my own games, this sort of information I wouldn't bother writing down. It would be something that would be taken into consideration for constructing combat encounters, and how a particular area on a hex grid could look like.