thread: 2013-06-20 : The Sundered Land
On 2013-07-16, Vincent wrote:
Okay, GNS and the Sundered Land.
Preface: If you aren't an old Forgie, this following is going to be opaque. Sorry! I'm willing to answer questions about it, but since GNS is basically obsolete, I don't encourage you to ask. If we're talking about GNS, we're talking about a historical perspective, not a contemporary one.
I'm also not going to argue in defense of this following. If you don't see it, if you disagree, that's fine. You'll have to figure out how to live with your disagreement. I'm not going to try to talk you into it.
So prefaced, here goes:
Most of the Sundered Land games are straight up Gamist. A couple of them have some wiggle, but most of them don't even.
The Doomed Pilgrim isn't one of the ones with wiggle. It's totally straight up Gamist, no question.
Thus the beautiful inversion!
Here's the setup: lots of Narrativist games have crunchy tactical elements, and they're given context, weight, value, and meaning by the moral or passionate conflicts that drive play. (I think you're referring to this, Gordon, when you say that it's fine for Narrativist play to include Sim-like and Gamist-like elements.)
And here's the beautiful inversion: the Sundered Land games have moral and passionate elements, like the doomed pilgrim's abandonment of violence, and they're given context, weight, value, and meaning by the tactical conflicts that drive play.
