thread: 2013-09-24 : What even IS the object of an rpg?
On 2013-10-02, Josh W wrote:
Gordon - I glided (glid?) over some stuff there that I probably could have mentioned, I follow the sort of thing your saying, but what I meant sounded similar but was a little different.
Basically, we don't play sorceror games where the players are not sorcerors. (As far as I know, I'm not a massive expert on this game, maybe some people have continued playing a character after they give up their demon stuff and succeeded? Anyway, I'm sure it's not the norm.)
That should be obvious really, but the situation set up is designed to create tensions we are interesting in exploring, with the characters motivation and goals as part of that. All of the four outcomes shortcircuit that tension.
Now mechnically, the dude could just keep on being a sorceror for ever, there's no automatic mechanical death spiral, just some hard stuff. And I suppose potentially they could get the outcome where they get what they want demon-style without breaking everything, and carry on.
But even if they do that, they've sort of managed to get beyond the core tension of the game, they've found out how to do what is supposedly incompatible with humanity for human ends.
Basically, the game continues until the players and GM break it by pushing it out of it's loop. That's the motivation of the players. It's not just some sitcom about a secret drug dealer trying to keep it going, it's breaking bad, where you know at some point the wheels are going to come off.
That seems a cool dynamic for me really; lots of people have learned from the whole "price of power" side of things, but I also like the idea of creating games specifically to break out of their own loops.
This makes JMW go "actually breaking bad is weirder than that (spoiler)"
because it starts bluring one character motivation into another, slowly replacing "get money to feed family after death" into "get power to feed ego" as the original kicker is undermined
