tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2638993969706011706.post2045145629042734885..comments2024-03-28T22:00:35.840-07:00Comments on Playing D&D With Porn Stars: Relevant Retropost: Distracted From Distraction By DistractionZak Sabbathhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08812410680077034917noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2638993969706011706.post-1141344588562109232018-06-23T05:36:29.161-07:002018-06-23T05:36:29.161-07:00Just found you from a friend's blog, and start...Just found you from a friend's blog, and started reading interesting stuff, unfortunately don't have enough time to respond at the moment apart from this brief message.Golgfag1https://www.blogger.com/profile/13121099569223866054noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2638993969706011706.post-53517987505068197302018-06-21T18:27:20.224-07:002018-06-21T18:27:20.224-07:00I magine that two cavemen probably created distrac...I magine that two cavemen probably created distraction to survive against bigger stronger animals but somewhere beyond language we began tell stories for entertainment (distraction). so there were two forms, the strategic or tactical and the therepeutic or artistic.<br />The scary thing is that greedy fuckers and guys with megaphones combine the forms and weaponize that.joshhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04839488102808252443noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2638993969706011706.post-59797931109497965072018-06-21T17:26:43.876-07:002018-06-21T17:26:43.876-07:00I'm teaching media studies this fall - you'...I'm teaching media studies this fall - you've given me lots of material. Thank you.<br /><br />The funny thing about racist or fascist gamers (disclaimer - I know nothing of the scandal du jour, just Trump riffing) is that they'll play through a storyline about rescuing a princess, but grab the pussy of the gamer girl at the table; they'll move heaven and earth to rescue the stolen children of the elves, but laugh at refugees in cages.<br /><br />It is funny that you can do an empathic, supposedly cognitive developing exercise and still be a moron.Tedankhamenhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00181643018957592969noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2638993969706011706.post-41247997506969883552018-06-21T03:08:42.641-07:002018-06-21T03:08:42.641-07:00Thank you. As to complex problem-solving exercises...Thank you. As to complex problem-solving exercises that might actually be helping us sprout neurons we could use later for some practical purpose and internal conversations that are meaningful, a couple things that happened in my home group's last gaming session.<br /><br />One, I have run games on grids since 3rd ed. However, I am editing a bunch of gaming video from our early nineties heyday that show we rarely used miniatures at all (maybe marching order). Last game I forgot maps and my monster minis (had the PC minis though) and we ran essentially on top of our books and stuff. Worked perfectly and seemed to be much more evocative. Players were much quicker to explain to other players where everything was and such rather than wait for me to show how things fit spatially on a drawn map.<br /><br />Two, ha, I once opined that word descriptions were much more evocative than art for gaming purposes. I had players with a variety of sight during twilight: a couple with 320' infravision, one with 90' darkvision, and two halve-elves with 60' colorized darkvision. Result that when the party encountered some Abstructs from “Lusus Naturae” I explained some various features wordily (“Yak-like faces coming toward you,” “Seem to be floating,” etc.), but once I showed a drawing to the two folks who could see most clearly, my friend Jessica was like, “Kill them, shoot, shoot, shoot now!”<br /><br />The event had all the makings of a bust: spending 3+ hours converting characters to the new edition, not even beginning to game until midnight, PCs levels ranging from 3rd to 14th, and actually only having a single combat encounter. Weirdly that in actuality everyone was invested, the high-level characters even got popped several times, the party worked together as a whole and in discrete sub-unit partners.<br /><br />In terms of game as conversation: What does playing on a grid speak to, but adherence to rules. And perhaps someone inhibited from “acting” or motion because perhaps misplacing their character's position on a grid would reveal ignorance of “rules” or maybe break the scene.<br /><br />Playing on an unlined coffee table using books and other accouterments as landmarks freed up players, new & experienced, to explore characters actions creatively rather than in the context of the specific, exact rules (which are essentially arbitrary anyway, like medium humanoids moving exactly 30' walking for 6 seconds).<br /><br />And also the effect of opportunistic art (see the Abstruct, not the cover bit, the drawing inside the book) to provide a more immediate visceral response that provokes action to an encounter, rather than mere words that can be evaluated as revealed (yak-face/ok not scary, floating/weird, 10 spidery legs growing from the creature's bottom extending upward/maybe time to ready missile weapons vs. appropriately-timed representative art = “Shoot!”)<br /><br />While I grok from your post relevance beyond the context of an RPG, your post resonated with my recent gaming event, which was very fun, social, interactive, suspenseful, and rewarding (5,000 xp each!). I suppose also there is some difference in an event being “live” as your audience is your audience, I mean everyone's right there – no question. Writing is a more complicated matter. I upped Chandler's stats for Abstructs and the party encountered 7 of them which I don't know Chandler would find appropriate or not. Plus I had the Abstructs make resin-temple parts out of everyone, not just children, because I needed an excuse to make off with the 3rd level druid rather than just waste him with their telekinesis. <br /><br />RPGs exist at this intersection of writing and performance. A hybrid maybe reflected in Toni Morrison's interactions with her audience, who she told the purpose of writing to power being "to keep ourselves strong." I have always played D&D like it was for college-aged people or older, not a kids game. Har, even when I was 13. Not to demonstrate I was precocious or anything like that. It was so we could have monsters like Blood Sucking Freaks. Hmmm...Matrox Luschhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01087871508197025467noreply@blogger.com