thread: 2005-05-03 : Creating Theme
On 2005-05-04, GB Steve wrote:
In the games I play, more often than not it's C+(A+B or B+A).
That is, the dynamic situation creates the tension and forces the player to chose a side for his character.
So, whilst you might be a rebel against the Empire but when you find out that your previously-thought-dead dad leads the Empire, you have to make a choice. It's premise in play. I'd even argue that in most mainstream games this is what happens.
Most games tend to have implicit notions of what the theme is. You're all freedom fighters against the Empire or knights who must way duty against feelings. These work perfectly well as long as the GM has an explicit understanding of this and applies his craft to the areas where the system supports the creation of tension.
As for dice being dangerous to this tension, they are often seen are enablers/resolvers of dramatic tension (e.g. in Pendragon when you roll a trait or in Cthulhu when you make a SAN roll). There's much invested in dice as a driving force and I'm not sure your argument is strong enough to counter that. I know I've tried it!
For example it can be argued that the players have signed up to the model of the world that includes dice as a resolution mechanic and so anything they indicate is per se logical.
Nice as your article is, I'm not sure it's saying anything new, or even packaging the whole in an exciting fashion. I don't think it's news to anyone that roleplaying is about putting characters in interesting situations to see what happens.
