Horrible roleplaying advice and mechanics

[angelfromanotherpin]

Why is anyone still responding to Silva like he's a person with something to contribute? Especially on the topic of *World games. They are shit, and the reasons they are shit have been covered extensively, which was worthwhile; anything more is just feeding the troll.

[Cyberzombie]

I said that. The way to succeed in silva World is by not playing it. The idea is seeing if that's possible while sitting at the game table. Something like Rincewind, I suppose. Make a character that tries to avoid all conflicts. Since silva World seems to work on a "an story is being told" paradigm, the story must still reach a conclusion.

If you view succeeding as simply surviving. Of course, you can do that in D&D too, where you just refuse to do any quests and become a farmer. Or just make a wageslave in Shadowrun instead of an actual runner.

[Longes]

They are shit, and the reasons they are shit have been covered extensively, which was worthwhile

Can someone point me to the relevant thread, or make a TL;DR?

[Ice9]

The "way to win" any GM-arbitrated game, or any GM-arbitrated part of a concrete game, is to be on the same wavelength as the GM - have similar ideas in terms of what things are cool and/or effective. Or at least to know what those ideas are.

And I'm not even talking about intentional favoritism. I'm just saying that when one player presents a plan that seems cool and workable, and another player presents one that seems confusing and counterproductive, most GMs are going to have the former yield better results. I ran into this myself when running a 3E game - the realm of social engineering is pretty much totally GM-arbitrated; the social rules only handle single interactions (and not very well). So for things like forming a crime syndicate or achieving nation-wide recognition, it comes down a judgement call. And in that case, ideas that the GM will embrace have the advantage.


Also, this:

If you view succeeding as simply surviving. Of course, you can do that in D&D too, where you just refuse to do any quests and become a farmer. Or just make a wageslave in Shadowrun instead of an actual runner.

The structure of TTRPGs is such that "succeeding" in them doesn't necessarily have the same priorities as IRL, or even other forms of media.

For example, in terms of screen time, "power now for pain later" deals like infernal contracts, evil artifacts, etc are a win-win situation. You get power and spotlight immediately. And then, when the bad stuff kicks in ... you get more spotlight. And why would you complain about having devils wanting to kill you? It's D&D! There's always something wanting to kill you. If it's too much and you die - so what? Make another character, it's a chance to introduce new directions and world elements. And to take the very next crazy deal that comes along.

Personally, I don't go quite to the extreme there - not every crazy opportunity needs to be taken, because I'm not actually trying to dominate the spotlight. But I have moved from a very "cautious" style to a much riskier one, once I realized that what I was doing made little sense. You don't only live once in a TTRPG, and there's no prize for just surviving, so why make that priority?

[brized]

For example, in terms of screen time, "power now for pain later" deals like infernal contracts, evil artifacts, etc are a win-win situation. You get power and spotlight immediately.

That is unless you have a GM that makes your character into an NPC villain in response. The whole Call of Cthulhu system seems to encourage just that, unfortunately.

[ishy]

If you view succeeding as simply surviving. Of course, you can do that in D&D too, where you just refuse to do any quests and become a farmer.

I remember reading about a D&D campaign where a first level party encountered a dungeon. Instead of entering, they founded a company, started making money and hiring adventurers to clear the dungeons for them.

[silva]

I remember reading about a D&D campaign where a first level party encountered a dungeon. Instead of entering, they founded a company, started making money and hiring adventurers to clear the dungeons for them.

Awesome idea.

[ACOS]

They are shit, and the reasons they are shit have been covered extensively, which was worthwhile

Can someone point me to the relevant thread, or make a TL;DR?

Much of it has been spread around several threads; but THIS is probably the best one.

[silva]

Lounges, the thread below just came up on RPGnet, for helping out people more used to tradtional games to grok its concepts:

http://forum.rpg.net/showthread.php?726 ... orld-Games