Is it time to cut the war game roots of role-playing?

[Max_Killjoy]

Really? Because he flat out says repeatedly that story trumps character and people who value character integrity of drama are problem players and/or playing the game wrong.

Which is his point of view, but not one I share. All of my bests games, both as a PC and a DM, have been character driven with the plot as a mere backdrop. Heck, most of my favorite books and movies are the same way.

Which is a fine opinion for him to have, I just don't agree with it. But he writes the article going out of his way to be belligerent (mostly for effect), which is going to provoke stronger reactions.


In my experience DM's who go on and on about how great the story is are just using it to justify their railroading. Heck, I have had multiple people accuse me of doing the same thing as a game designer, that by putting my Setting chapter before my Character Creation chapter I am implicitly telling them that their stories will never be as important as my own.



Edit: I just realized that the linked article is actually a highly abridged version of the original, rather than merely censoring the profanity the clean version uses much milder language all around and cuts out a lot of the meat of the original. So I might actually be responding to things that are in the original but not in the article that was actually linked.

I should read the original, then -- because maybe it contains what I see hints of in the abridged version.

The abridged version appears to be giving some fairly good advice if the advice is taken in moderation, but the wording hints at a far more aggressive and counter-productive stance than that.

There are a couple of places where a generous reading chalks it up to writing style, but a cynical reading really does leave the abridged article coming across as "sit down, shut up, and know your character's narrative role, pleb". Or as you put it, the Edwardian assertion that "your character is a nobody".


E: IMO, there should be a setting summary, at least, before character creation. Characters, like people, don't come into existence in a vacuum, and players should be making their characters with the setting in mind.