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Topic	A Geektivus For The Rest Of Us
ParanoidObsessive 02/22/18 6:59:10 AM #214:	shadowsword87 posted... The last few editions have more or less gotten rid of alignment and just have a token part of it. But it's also telling that, after the attempt in 4e to simplify Alignment down into a scale rather than a 2-axis chart (ie, more like what Alignment was so very long ago in early D&D, when it was just Law vs. Chaos, and Law basically just meant "PC" while Chaos meant "monster you kill for XP"), the outcry over it was strong enough that they felt the need to revert it back to the more familiar system. Most people LIKE the idea of Alignment as a mechanic. Or, at the very least, as a guideline for RP. shadowsword87 posted... What's annoying is that alignment, stats, and the idea of a d20 are one of the things that stuck with the people who don't play DnD, which two of those things have have awful baggage that I wish would go away. The d20 is fine, there are a few people who swear by using 2d10 or 3d6 for their random number generator, but it's not nearly as big as the other stuff. Once you've taken the step to reject stats, it's an easy step to throw away the dice as well and join us over here in freeform land. Especially if you're emphasizing character, narrative, and ROLEplay anyway over more restrictive rolls and consulting tables and playing Math: the Game. Though while my beloved Amber DRPG never used Alignment and dropped the dice (hence the DRPG - the D stands for "diceless"), it still kept stats (sort of - they were simplistic as fuck, which is why most players just ignored them anyway). So there's more than one path to the Promised Land. shadowsword87 posted... What is frustrating though is how people only know PnP RPGs as DnD. So if you want to run a superhero game, or a scifi game, or a zombie game, or anything other than Fantasy and Fantasy-related games, people assume that it's DnD. That s*** gets annoying. This is not a new thing, though. It's the same as when older people basically used to equate "video game console" with "Nintendo" back in the 80s or "Playstation" more recently. It's not really an issue if you want to run a Shadowrun game and your new player keeps referring to it as D&D unless you're really pedantic about it. Just be happy they want to play at all, and give them an awesome experience so they want to keep playing - and eventually, they may start referring to all RP, even D&D, as whatever game you've hooked them in with. And if it's the non-playing bystanders' opinions you're worried about, who cares? Why give a fuck what they think you're playing if it means nothing to them anyway (and they probably assume it involves demon sacrifice and cult indoctrination)? Zeus posted... The d20 is one of the coolest inventions known to geekdom. I came into gaming at a time when the d20 was still more or less the least useful die in the set outside of the d12, because pretty much nothing and no one used the d12 (unless you were like a shitty Barbarian or something). That, combined with the fact that my first two systems used d10s exclusively (MSHRPG as percentile dice, and WW as "roll a shitload of them" - which L5R later copied), I'm far more inclined to think of the d10 as the "default" RPG die. It wasn't until the OGL that the d20 boom really took off. That being said, I also own a d24, a d30, and a d100 because I enjoy being weird. --- "Wall of Text'D!" --- oldskoolplayr76 "POwned again." --- blight family <cite>ParanoidObsessive posted [p:896549478] in A Geektivu... [t:76102111]...</cite> <quote><cite>shadowsword87 posted...</cite> <quote>The last few editions have more or less gotten rid of alignment and just have a token part of it.</quote> But it's also telling that, after the attempt in 4e to simplify Alignment down into a scale rather than a 2-axis chart (ie, more like what Alignment was so very long ago in early D&D, when it was just Law vs. Chaos, and Law basically just meant "PC" while Chaos meant "monster you kill for XP"), the outcry over it was strong enough that they felt the need to revert it back to the more familiar system. Most people LIKE the idea of Alignment as a mechanic. Or, at the very least, as a guideline for RP. <cite>shadowsword87 posted...</cite> <quote>What's annoying is that alignment, stats, and the idea of a d20 are one of the things that stuck with the people who don't play DnD, which two of those things have have awful baggage that I wish would go away. The d20 is fine, there are a few people who swear by using 2d10 or 3d6 for their random number generator, but it's not nearly as big as the other stuff.</quote> Once you've taken the step to reject stats, it's an easy step to throw away the dice as well and join us over here in freeform land. Especially if you're emphasizing character, narrative, and ROLEplay anyway over more restrictive rolls and consulting tables and playing Math: the Game. Though while my beloved Amber DRPG never used Alignment and dropped the dice (hence the DRPG - the D stands for "diceless"), it still kept stats (sort of - they were simplistic as fuck, which is why most players just ignored them anyway). So there's more than one path to the Promised Land. <cite>shadowsword87 posted...</cite> <quote>What is frustrating though is how people only know PnP RPGs as DnD. So if you want to run a superhero game, or a scifi game, or a zombie game, or anything other than Fantasy and Fantasy-related games, people assume that it's DnD. That s*** gets annoying.</quote> This is not a new thing, though. It's the same as when older people basically used to equate "video game console" with "Nintendo" back in the 80s or "Playstation" more recently. It's not really an issue if you want to run a Shadowrun game and your new player keeps referring to it as D&D unless you're really pedantic about it. Just be happy they want to play at all, and give them an awesome experience so they want to keep playing - and eventually, they may start referring to all RP, even D&D, as whatever game you've hooked them in with. And if it's the non-playing bystanders' opinions you're worried about, who cares? Why give a fuck what they think you're playing if it means nothing to them anyway (and they probably assume it involves demon sacrifice and cult indoctrination)? <cite>Zeus posted...</cite> <quote>The d20 is one of the coolest inventions known to geekdom.</quote> I came into gaming at a time when the d20 was still more or less the least useful die in the set outside of the d12, because pretty much nothing and no one used the d12 (unless you were like a shitty Barbarian or something). That, combined with the fact that my first two systems used d10s exclusively (MSHRPG as percentile dice, and WW as "roll a shitload of them" - which L5R later copied), I'm far more inclined to think of the d10 as the "default" RPG die. It wasn't until the OGL that the d20 boom really took off. That being said, I also own a d24, a d30, and a d100 because I enjoy being weird. --- "Wall of Text'D!" --- oldskoolplayr76 "POwned again." --- blight family</quote> ... Copied to Clipboard!
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