Assume the role of questing knights in an archetypal Grail Quest of your own making.
In my article Goals and the Units of Play, I suggested that a gap between the theme of a game’s units and the actual goals of the players might enhance play—and its lack could make a game go flat. Could it be that persistent critics of new-style RPing are reacting against the absence of gaps n new games?
Aug 23, 2009 | Filed in design | Tagged: DnD, units | 0 Comments
One of the myths of earlier role-playing was that the game system somehow represented the physics of the alternate world. This can be the case, to an extent. But it was a myth because physics aren’t the only thing rules can represent and, moreover, most rules then weren’t really about physics, though they sometimes pretended to be. Players rarely thought exclusively in physical terms, neverminding the rules (which were often so incoherent you had to put them out of mind to play).
Apr 12, 2009 | Filed in design | Tagged: mechanics, units | 0 Comments
