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Author Topic: Credo  (Read 12768 times)

fonkaygarry

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Credo
« Reply #45 on: October 14, 2006, 03:26:47 AM »
Quote from: Pebbles and Marbles
Why you gotta hate on General Mills and their tasty treat?


Once I ran a game in a house that had no snack food save a Sam's Club-sized bag of Chex Mix.  Game ran long and most of us had skipped lunch, so we ate endless fistfuls of that toxic stuff.  We were forced to break for chicken caesar salad before we we choked to death by our own GI tracts.

So I am not fucking around when I tell players that Chex Mix is forbidden at my game table.
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Pebbles and Marbles

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« Reply #46 on: October 14, 2006, 03:50:41 AM »
My girlfriend and I would often cook a quick meal for everyone before games. Some sort of Thai or Vietnamese dish - noodle dishes, typically.  We found that usually made everyone show up on time, even early, and saved them having to eat toxic snack food crap during the game.

Oh, and free beer helps 'em show up on time, as well.  We went the cheap route there, though.  If they wanted to donate to a fund, they could get something nice.  Otherwise, their cheap ass was going to drink Beck's while I had my Aventinus weizenbock.

But providing beer for everyone was only when we were feeling particularly generous.  Othewise they got water.  Out of a hose.  

Tea, actually.  Tea makes for a good drink for a game session, though there's an unfortunate amount of pauses during the game about four pots of oolong in.

I've horribly digressed, haven't I?  To get back on topic, here's my credo:

1) The Tao that can be spoken of is not the eternal Tao.

2) Free noodles and tea for everyone.
 

Mr. Analytical

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Credo
« Reply #47 on: October 14, 2006, 04:08:19 AM »
I don't buy this "Oh the hobby's far too negative" bollocks.  For starters, the bulk of the hobby isn't negative at all... the bulk of thr hobby happily plays its weakly D&D game and probably has done since the late 70's and does so without complaint.

Internet gamers though, frequently don't play at all.  They're part of this whole other hobby which is basically all about discussing games that it might be fun to play if they had someone to play with.  Of course that's going to lead to negativity... it's like a bunch of rapists in prison talking about how much they miss women.  It's going to get you down.

But the hobby isn't fairly represented online.  The hobby is a completely different activity to hanging out on message boards.  To whit, I bitch and moan continuously online but in the real world I'm happy to play anything that presents itself.

Lucifuge

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« Reply #48 on: October 14, 2006, 04:08:32 AM »
Quote from: Zachary The First

6)  If the dice lands on the floor, it doesn't count.


And if touches a book/mini/other dice, it doesn't count, too, if it doesn't land flat.
 

Lucifuge

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« Reply #49 on: October 14, 2006, 04:12:44 AM »
Quote from: mattormeg
1) I play games solely for fun. Otherwise, they aren't games - they're work.


Rule #1 for me.

And I add:

1) I don't have to be politically correct in games. If I play a politically uncorrect, racist, son-o-a-bitch, violent maschilist badass, that doesn't mean that I'm like that in real life.


I'm just a politically uncorrect, son-of-a-bitch, violent badass. :D
 

Yamo

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« Reply #50 on: October 14, 2006, 04:14:31 AM »
Quote from: Balbinus
Ok, this is the thread for stating your opinions clearly and without beating around the bush.  Let's not be polite, by which I don't mean let's flame each other for the sake of it (that would be a different thread really) but let's state flat out honestly what we think about aspects of gaming.

I'll start.  In no particular order:

1.  I regard the current obsession with kewl powerz and uber characters as basically immature, adolescent power gaming of the kind I grew out of many years ago.  I'm not saying it's never fun, I love Feng Shui, but for Christ's sake does it have to be so ubiquitous?  We look down on mindless Hollywood action movies as derivative crap, why make them the high point of our gaming?

2.  People should have the balls to accept a bit of challenge in their games occasionally, losing is character building.

3.  There are better ways to make stories collectively than rpgs.  Rpgs as story-building devices work, but they produce trite and obvious stories that almost nobody would ever pay for in any other context (PTA being the only exception I can think of).

4.  Fudging is cheating.

5.  History is not made better by the addition of magic.  If you can't create an interesting plot based on human passion and motivations and nothing else (no magical curses, no alien or fantasy races, just plain people who want conflicting things) then you should learn to do so as you are missing a really fundamental GMing tool.

6.  You don't have to have an extraordinary character every time, the real challenge is making an ordinary character interesting.  

7.  Playing an ordinary guy in an interesting setting captures far more sense of wonder than playing an extraordinary character in a blandly over the top setting.

8.  Much gaming described as narrativist is simple power fantasy dressed up as something deeper.  For every gamer genuinely wanting thematically powerful narratives I think there are quite a few guys who just want the power to narrate that they never lose.

9.  The development of rpg theory, and I do not just mean GNS, has not benefitted the overall hobby in any meaningful way.  Had none of it happened, we would still have just as many cool games today and probably fewer flamewars.

10.  Playing a half-elf/half-giant hybrid doesn't mean your character is interesting, it just shows you aren't a good enough roleplayer to portray a credible human being.

There's more, but I have to wait until they strike me.  Your turn.  Post honestly.


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In order to qualify as a roleplaying game, a game design must feature:

1. A traditional player/GM relationship.
2. No set story or plot.
3. No live action aspect.
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Don't like it? Too bad.

Click here to visit the Intenet's only dedicated forum for Fudge and Fate fans!

JamesV

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« Reply #51 on: October 14, 2006, 08:19:52 AM »
Quote from: Mr. Analytical
I don't buy this "Oh the hobby's far too negative" bollocks.  For starters, the bulk of the hobby isn't negative at all... the bulk of thr hobby happily plays its weakly D&D game and probably has done since the late 70's and does so without complaint.

Internet gamers though, frequently don't play at all.  They're part of this whole other hobby which is basically all about discussing games that it might be fun to play if they had someone to play with.  Of course that's going to lead to negativity... it's like a bunch of rapists in prison talking about how much they miss women.  It's going to get you down.

But the hobby isn't fairly represented online.  The hobby is a completely different activity to hanging out on message boards.  To whit, I bitch and moan continuously online but in the real world I'm happy to play anything that presents itself.


That's the thing. I agree that the hobby isn't really well represented online. And I think that small stream of negativity is why. Outside of the net, I think a good majority of gamers just don't care enough to have any negativity about gaming, they simply have their preferences and go on from there. But online, it's like we have this compulsion to vent about the stuff we think sucks, and while it may make us feel better, it can sometimes suck all the energy out of the room.
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mattormeg

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« Reply #52 on: October 14, 2006, 08:56:06 AM »
1. Credo did not shoot first.

Mr. Analytical

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« Reply #53 on: October 14, 2006, 09:11:55 AM »
I think that online gamers can't handle negativity partly because of their own sense of inadequacy and partly because they've grown accustomed to highly moderated environments.

Most gamers don't have negative opinions about other games because they play their games and that's it.  This is a discussion forum and frankly people who don't want to discuss and have their views on things challenged, really should stop logging on to discussion forums.

Partly because gaming is such a low-status hobby (second only to acting in bestial porn videos) and because the geek social fallacies are so ripe within the gaming community, there's a real problem dealing with the fact that someone might think that you're not only wrong but actually, you have really shitty tastes in things.

If you go to any other hobby's forums you'll find that the attitude that your views and tastes are subject to scrutiny actually leads to quite empassioned and intelligent debates.

But instead, there's a culture of relativism where people "get excited" about games and "vent" about games as long as the language isn't so trenchant as to maybe invalidate the lifechoices of one of your fellow gamers.  The two sides of the coin never really engage with each other which results either in persistant low-level bitching or in empty-headed enthusiasm.

Look at RPGnet.  You get endless threads about how great Exalted is and then you'll get threads that complain about the prevalence of Exalted threads and whenever possible a number of people will put Exalted on the list of games they don't like (which generally leads to cries of "Don't Judge me!").

Put the two together and you'd actually get some good threads and, chances are, the matter would get solved and some kind of concensus would be formed.  As I used to say on RPGnet when I actually gave a shit about their moderation policy, the reason why you'd get 150-page flamewars if you didn't moderate is because the community is split and people need to say certain things to each other.

If people actually had to bollocks to stand up for what they felt strongly about you not only would have some interesting and constructive threads that really went into great detail on certain issues, you'd also give a vent for people who disagree with the majority opinion.  But instead, because no game enjoys 100% popularity, you get a universal background hum of pissyness and unpleasantness as if a family had a problem but never bothered to talk about it.

ColonelHardisson

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« Reply #54 on: October 14, 2006, 10:23:27 AM »
5) Gamers have very provincial attitudes, concerning everything from the games they play to the forums they hang out at. Get it through your skull that the way you play isn't the way everyone else plays, and that RPG.net isn't the only fuckin' game forum out there.

6) There are plenty of us out here who couldn't give two shits about RPG.net one way or the other because we rarely, if ever, have been there.
"Illegitimis non carborundum." - General Joseph "Vinegar Joe" Stilwell

4e definitely has an Old School feel. If you disagree, cool. I won't throw any hyperbole out to prove the point.

Zachary The First

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« Reply #55 on: October 14, 2006, 11:44:18 AM »
8.  re:  Internet Forae:  There is no comment so innocuous, no statement so mild, or rule suggestion/change so minute that someone will not cry about and claim you are engaging in a severe personal attack or "completely destroying the industry".
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Balbinus

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« Reply #56 on: October 14, 2006, 11:55:50 AM »
Quote from: droog
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.


Why is it his call?  Whatever he thinks, and I haven't scrolled down yet, I enjoy your posts.

For me, having you here, Tony, Levi and a bunch of others more on the story side of the hobby improves things, if I just wanted to hear people who agreed with me...

Um...

Actually, I'm not sure where I'd go for that, but it doesn't interest me anyway.

Balbinus

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« Reply #57 on: October 14, 2006, 12:00:49 PM »
Quote from: Sosthenes
Tcha, you know what? Uh-uh

(Okay, okay, just two kobolds might be pushing your luck. But that's why we've got class levels for "monsters" now...)


That is just a plain brilliant link.  That's DnD I would enjoy a bit more, balls to the wall as my favourite poster American Badass used to say.

Imperator

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« Reply #58 on: October 14, 2006, 12:43:25 PM »
My credo (though I agre wit Balbinus in everything):

1. I only play with people I like.

2. Fudging is cheating. If you have to fudge, the game doesn't work.

3. Kewl Powerz are cool. But if they are the only motivation you have to play, go playing WoW or some shit like that.

4. We produce story by gaming. Thus, it's an improvised story, for good and bad.

5. Games are fueled by interesting conflicts.If you are not interested in that, go play WoW.

6. I don't give a fuck about GNS, Adventure/Thematic games or any other division you try to make between games of pretending being something. All that is bollocks. I play games. If you feel all smug and superior because you play that special way, go fuck yourself.

7. Flamewars are most of the time pointless and stupid, but for some people are a part of the hobby. Fuck that.

8. We speak openly about the game, what we want and what we like, until we all come to an agreement.

9. Everyone is entitled to play the way he likes, without having to bear with any other guy coming and telling him that he's a dysfunctional player, not a "true" roleplayer, or some other crock of shit like that. Anyway, I don't care about what other people does at their table.

10. Miniatures are cool.
My name is Ramón Nogueras. Running now Vampire: the Masquerade (Giovanni Chronicles IV for just 3 players), and itching to resume my Call of Cthulhu campaign (The Sense of the Sleight-of-Hand Man).

Balbinus

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« Reply #59 on: October 14, 2006, 12:48:55 PM »
Here's one more:

14.  My appetite to hear what you think sucks is fairly limited, what I want to hear is what you think absolutely fucking rocks.

Seriously, I don't really care if you think Rifts is teh suxxors or that Sorceror is for gurls.  But if you think Rifts is sheer fun on a plate or that Sorceror is the most fun you can have while keeping at least some clothes on, that interests me.

And I don't mean by that don't disagree or don't challenge, just that this is a fun hobby so let's reflect that a bit.