thread: 2013-06-20 : The Sundered Land
On 2013-07-16, Gordon wrote:
Vincent(and all): OK, so we're close. To use (not mock, just to be clear) your phrasing: if I/we've talked you down from "having a goal other than dooming the pilgrim sucks" to "letting up on dooming the pilgrim is a real problem", I'm content. Challenge is one of the key tools available for making the game interesting, and if you don't play your stated goal hard, you're limiting your access to that tool.
GNS ... so, G and N (rather than S) is where I really got involved, esp. with a GNS-disliker who later deleted his posts (or I'd link the threads, but with mostly only one side, I remember they look lame). So I can't resist.
Among the other (probably more important) things this discussion illuminates is what was one of the really, REALLY hard bits to explain about GNS: that it's just fine for (say) N-play to include tons of stuff that looks like the other two. Bluntly, in this paralell, a game like Doomed Pilgrim that calls for a no-holds-barred, uneven struggle can still (depending on other elements of the design and what the particular group of players does with it) produce play of any flavor. I mean, I have some concerns about reliably mapping GNS on vignettes of play like these. But as an example of what can - and does - happen in other play, I'd say it's actually quite illuminating of that huge, annoying stumbling block.
