Going cheap

[Jack Spencer Jr]

I was in the bath today when an idea occured to me. OK, no I wasn't but the idea came nevertheless. It has something to do with going for the cheap gratification in whatever you're going for. In Danse Macare, Stephen King wrote:

I recognize terror as the finest emotion, and so I will try to terrorize the reader. But if I find that I cannot terrify, I will try to horrify, and if I find that I cannot horrify, I'll go for the gross-out; I'm not proud

The gross-out is the cheap way out in horror. There's the cheap laugh in comedy or just cheap sex, mindless screwing over real intense sensual encounter and so on.

This strikes me as an intriguing concept to apply to RPGs as far as content and how to reach for the more intense pay-off and how to avoid cheaping out.

I'm posting this in Theory because at this point, it's purely hypethetical. I'm sure some sister threads could be started in Actual Play

[Mike Holmes]

Hmm. I thought King's point was to get whatever you can. I too am not proud, and will get whatever jollies out of role-playing that I can. Sure, I'll go for the good stuff when possible. But I'm just as satisfied if all I can muster is the cheap stuff.

Practically my motto: Taste is just a way to be dissapointed more often.

Mike

[Jack Spencer Jr]

That may be King's point, Mike, but it is not mine. I believe that many game groups are quite proficient at going cheap and have no idea how to go for the "good stuff," for lack of a better term for it, nor that there is something like the the "good stuff" to reach for, thus many gamers believe that RPG can only go cheap. This is a lot like saying comic books can only do costumed super heroes. Besides, it is fairly easy to go cheap. That's why it's called that, you see. So, I don't think anyone needs any help to go cheap. Where they may need help is at the other end of the spectrum