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Monday 3 August 2020

Building Worlds... D&D and all RPG's

So there has been a lot of "outsiders" looking into RPG's in general and displaying their disdain for the genre. Outsider: meaning someone with very limited information on how RPG's work, feeling that what is written in the rules is LAW, and have contempt for any "triggering" content.

The DM/GM has to read his participants, gauging what will promote situations in the game, resulting in the participants resolving the situation, resulting in catharsis.
It's part of the DM/GM's job to create something that "triggers" the participants, so they play with an emotional attachment to resolve.

Without this, the game becomes a theme-park and the goal is XP... which leads to the game being dismissive and unmemorable.

NPC's are the DM/GM's tools to evoke conflicts or aid in such conflicts. They must portray a persona that comes from the imagination of what a good villain or commoner in the imagined world would be.
Many DM/GM's will use voice acting and even accents to portray these NPC's.

I once had a game of Space 1889, Victorian, Jules Verne era Sci-fi.
One of the most beloved NPC's I made was the manservant Gungi Jim, companion to the lead player's character, the very British, Matthew Cross.
I used a pseudo India influenced accent to bring the NPC to life.
Cross was eventually joined with a US Gunslinger and a Canadian Inventor (no longer remember the characters names, this was back when the game first came out in the 80's)
Cross' main antagonist was Danton Mignon Monet... a French aristocrat, that was attempting to woo Cross' love-interest Miss Stephanie.



Monet was based on the powder poof white-wigged Casanova, complete with white makeup and fake beauty mark... and he was a bondage fanatic... (I knew this would really, REALLY irk the RL player).

Stephanie's kidnapping and the search for ancient treasures in the Amazon ruined cities (complete with giant scorpions, pythons, and giant Cyclopian-Centaurs... French mercenaries under Monet's command...
THIS was the most memorable campaign for all the players involved. and is STILL talked about to this day almost 40 years later.

With the incursion of SJW policing, how would you then re-create this masterpiece of brain-candy?

No matter what the SJW's write within the rule books... Roleplaying games are not chained to the rules. Any mechanics system that players gravitate towards, will be used to invent new worlds with all kinds of "triggering" tropes, and there is nothing they can do about it.
Even the setting promoted (Faerun/Sword Coast, Ravenloft. Theros...) will be torn asunder by DM's that will cannibalize the parts they deem fit for their group and add their own twists and creative ingenuity. Making EVERY world different and diverse in their own way through the gameplay between participants in the game. 

Take heed readers, that you are empowered to create ANYTHING you want, if you have the audience/participants willing to interact with it. You can use any "trigger" to have at your disposal to give participants, for the best game experience possible.
The players will either enjoy it or leave it for another game suited for their tastes.
 


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