thread: 2008-09-29 : Creative Tension
On 2008-10-05, Callan wrote:
Hi Emily,
I'm not thinking so much the author deciding whether there's a jenga tower. I'm talking more about rules where a player has a choice to resolve something via the jenga tower over some other method. And he may do so because the tension it develops is the one he wants to author into the session. That's not a terribly sublime example, but its around that area.
Also if he makes that move, people don't try and influence him out of it next time/this time by groaning or whatever. People just suffer the move/feel what it makes them feel, instead of dabbling in the social contracts nuances to try and shape the play they want.
Of course, over most of roleplays thirty year history, just feeling what a move could do was/is often a brutal affair. Most people don't want to be forced to feel something, and look for some way to fight back, even if it means reaching outside the games rules and into the social contract.
But I think rules can be made to have a less brutal emotional impact. However I think no one makes rules that are less brutal, because they are used to reaching into the SC to shape play. Then if you point that out, they say how brutal it would be if they didn't do that, therefore its part of the game! (bah!)
