thread: 2009-07-13 : How About Some Q and A
On 2009-07-26, Bwian wrote:
In relation to Christian's point about '...someone using their authority according to their initial agreement, but putting something into the fiction that makes the game unfun for the other players'
It seems to me that:
1) 'rules' may acquire authority from a number of sources.
2) The rules and their authority may help the participants resolve conflicts or disagreements about 'what the participants may do during the game'. (Of course 'rules' also perform other functions)
3) Decisions about whether to follow or break 'rules', whether to play or not to play, or how to employ the freedoms permitted within the 'rules' are made in a social context.
4) If the 'rules' permit a freedom that a player uses in a way that is counterproductive from that player's point of view, it is poor play. 'Good play' is not always technically good. If I play Monopoly with ruthless efficiency, with the result that I upset my younger brother, this might be either good play or poor play from my point of view.
5) But if the 'rules' permit a freedom that a player uses in a way that is counterproductive from the other players' points of view, it is poor play only to the extent that the game is a cooperative game.
6) (I think...) most RPGs are cooperative games most of the time.
7) So 'legal moves' that seem counterproductive to other players would often be poor play in most RPGs.
8) The remedies for this kind of 'poor play' are the usual, socially determined, remedies for 'poor performance' generally - coaching/ training, exclusion, apology, avoiding the issue, changing the rules/ procedures etc.
9) These are the same kinds of remedies as are available for 'rule-breaking' behaviour.
10) In either case, altering the rules may provide a way to improve performance.
11) To the extent that RPGs are cooperative games, one function of rules is to enable/ assist the participants to play well.
I have not addressed the question of 'authority' in the above.
There is also the thorny question about what happens if one player wants to play cooperative and another wants to play competitive...
Cheers
Bwian
