[Primetime Adventures]: Pre-Actual Play

[Ron Edwards]

Hi Ian,

John's right - you're still struggling with some funky notion that got into your head that "If I play game X and it's supposed to be all Sim, but I'm playing Narr with it, then I'm dysfunctional." I even remember when that happened, a couple of years ago; your posts got all tail-chasey and impossible to answer, and then you stopped posting. So maybe it's time to just find that wriggly notion and kill it?

Bset,
Ron

[Ian O'Rourke]

That is quite true. In truth though I stopped posting because I started actually playing, so that was sort of a good thing.

It wasn't so much I thought I was dysfunctional (I must watch what I say) - it was more I was seeking perfection I think, often before I actually played, or after the first few sessions.

I think that period of actual play has started to resolve the issues you mention. The reason being, even though I'm not DM'ing, I've heavily influenced how the games we play are played, and I think I've finally reached the comfort zones in terms of how we approach playing, it's relationship to the system and, more importantly, what I get out of narrativists systems.

It may be worth noting that the other thread I'm involved in is not related to this issue - but since it's about unconscious narrative (or not) play it may touch on slightly.