[D&D] Antagonizing tactics to avoid

[Callan S.]

Hi Hal,

I'm sure you can hold off for a couple of weeks and then post, you'll likely only be on the second page.

On topic, being a entertainer/referee has...worked...for me as well. I developed lists, sometimes written, alot of the time in my head, just like yours at in the original post. And the lists got longer and longer - which surely means I was getting on top of things and becoming a better entertainer, if the list I knew was getting longer, right? I could pride myself on how much I knew even!

And it got longer after each session, because - well, if your going to kick a soccer ball into some goals and the goalie tries to stop it, that's an opponent. But what if some person who isn't an opponent runs onto the field and tries to block the ball from going in - that's just annoying - that's just antagonistic! So each session I tried to figure out how I'd run onto the field and 'blocked the ball' so to speak in various circumstances and in using various monsters and opponents.

And that's all I need to say, really.

But I will point out that the technical issues are considerable, in terms of being a referee and opponent. However, at its core its about the difference between inventing resources and only using those resources present. Have a look at wargamers, from what actual play I've seen they mutually set up the terrain in a completely cooperational mode - and then they go and try to absolutely murder each others armies! The two stages - inventing resources (terrain) and using only those resources that exist as an opponent, are both neatly seperated YET part of the same game.

Likewise in D&D, making an orc *pop* into existance isn't anything to be proud of, but once invented and in existance, manouvering him by stock standard rules across the floor to charge into and flank a PC without being decapitated first IS something to be proud of! However, D&D includes the grander strategic element, its not about single fights in issolation from each other. This fucks up the 'invent the orc into existance' and 'then use what resources exist as an opponent' divide. Because although in individual fights you invent resources and then only use what resources there are, from the strategic view, you keep just inventing resources throughout the game (as opposed to players working only with pre existing resources) and thus your doing nothing you can be proud of.

That actually slits the throat of gamism if played in vanilla form, which although many people just stop thinking about gamism "Oh, D&D does that really well...that's all there is to say", really this throat slitting is quite appealing to people who are interested in killing off gamist play in favour of another agenda (not that slitting one agendas throat helps foster another, but that's another topic entirely).

Gamism is not a simple area in terms of design. And the lists of 'antagonistic' behavour can become quite long because of it.