Firstly this really isnt a flame more like a singe. I recently found this site and registered…the show was very entertaining. anyway the complaint
It seems someone was diggin a little too deep te get the gist of Role playing…the rules are subject to change but there are gajillions of them for the unimaginative…they are not necessary to play. all Role playing entails is this. You write a story…not completely…the Master or controller of the game writes the environment…histroy and all uncontollable things we encounter in any reality… the characters are given souls…basically somone who isnt really fit could achieve his dream of being a gallant knight even if it IS only on paper. I have played quite a few different games…some lasting for years…and get so attached to the characters…i write the entire adventure iunto a novel.this is a common practice of fantasy writers.
anyways…the best games i have played had no rulebooks and no statues or maps of every bathroom and pisshole on te planet…
thos who liketo read would really enjoy roleplaying…youget to contorl what your favorite character does!
Could I ask you something? I attempted to parse some meaning out of your post, but I was unsuccessful. What are you going on about? Is this in responce to an old column or to another poster here? Is it from the MPSIMS area? If so, please be more clear as to the context of your remarks, for manny of us never go to that area.
Dr. Fidelius, Charlatan
Associate Curator Anomalous Paleontology, Miskatonic University
Homo vult decipi; decipiatur
Ditto, and FYI-There are also a few books about The Straight Dope. :).
Huh?
From the comment about “diggin a little too deep te get the gist of Role playing”, I would guess Brithael is talking about either the column “What the deal with Dungeons and Dragons” ( http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a1_309b.html ) or the thread discussing it ( http://www.straightdope.com/ubb/Forum1/HTML/000163.html ) in Comments on Cecil’s Columns. In either case, I couldn’t find a point in the OP.
That should be “What’s the deal…”. And I didn’t type it with that funky line break.
Listen to this: according to Brithael’s personal info on ICQ, he’s 23 years old (which may explain a bit about his apparently senseless posts, and he
He also adds (jokingly, I’d like to think) that he belongs to the following:
International Org.: World Domination Commitee
Club/Social Org.: The Spanish Inquisition
Community Org.: Redneck Cleansing Org.
My guess is this guy either screwed up and posted on the wrong MB, or he’s some poster’s friend and is just pulling our legs. But he definitely sounds weird. We’ll see.
Okay, everyone knows my bitch about bad typists and those who just ramble. But there is a point in all that. Somewhere. Perhaps I’m wrong or I see what I want to. You get the idea that somehow all fantasy writers drag up (dredge up) their ideas from roll playing games? Or some such. I think I’m close. If I’m wrong then all I can say is, “kiss my butt and call it ice-cream” because I like where I’m going and don’t really care if you come along or not. Want to go with me? Then take my hand…
Fine, lets run with that. I write fantasy. I’ve played Dungeons and Dragons. I’ve been a player and a Dungeon Master (how many were shocked at my title Master? You will bow down before me!) Anyway, yes. I’ve gone both ways (insert comment here). Gotten story ideas from games, gotten game ideas from stories.
As a writer, it’s all the same. You say, I write, I say, you write and I take it for my own. It’s all the same. You, none of you, on this board, can say anything that doesn’t slip through my writers mind. It’s all fodder for my mill. But the best times, best games, the best stories… those were ripped from someone’s head.
No checking the guide to hit damage, it was determined by a random roll of the die from the Master’s hand. It was all up to them. What happened to me, my compatriots, the monsters. I loved that! That power and absolute final say!
Okay, sugar, you who posted this mistyped and badly posted topic. You are the master of this thread. Take a deep breath, slow your fingers, post again and let me know if I even hit close…
If you are typing and submitting novels even remotely close to what you type here than it’s no wonder they never even got to mine after trying to read yours!
Kisses all around for everyone
Byz
The moon looks on many flowers, the flowers on but one moon.
Ok, please enlighten us. What the heck is “Roll playing”? What are “Roll Games”? I have an idea, and if I’m correct, this is NOT the place to be playing those games, right?
C’mon, Byzantine, you can help.
Okay, I won’t be so presumptions to speak for others but to me a roll playing game is one where I get to shed myself and step into another person’s shoes.
I get to be a magician, a fighter, a cleric. I’m no longer me, Byzantine, I am, I become this other person. Yeah, it’s a lot of fun but it isn’t life! It’s a chance to be another and feel things from their point of view. Everything I do, all the damage I can inflict on another is left up to the “roll” of the dice. IMHO that is where the name comes from. Yes, I walk into a roll but what ever happens to me is but the “luck of the roll”. The Master calls the shots by rolling the dice.
It’s a fucking game. Like life in a lot of ways… The only difference is that in the game you have the immediate outcome to your actions… in real life, as I’m in now, you have to wait and see what the outcome will be… I can just see a bunch of warped , frustrated, teeneboppers jumping all over my shit because they don’t like my explanation.
Again, my new young nubile friends, I invite you to “kissith my ass and call it a frozen treat”.
The moon looks on many flowers, the flowers on but one moon.
E1skeptic
Oh, yes, you are right. Discussing such games is one thing but playing such here is nothing but the greatest load of bullshit.
A “roll” playing game? Wouldn’t that be where you pretend you are a baked good similar to a muffin? Does the Pillsbury Dough Boy play “roll” playing games?
Perhaps bowling is a “roll” playing game. Or craps.
Methinks you mean ROLE playing game.
“Owls will deafen us with their incessant hooting!” W. Smithers
Shit my English and my fast fingers!
You’re absolutely right. It should read “ROLE”, not “roll”. Sorry… thanks.
Hey Brithael –
One word for ya, dude: “girls.”
Frankd6
Okay, just slap me and call me “up all night”. Yeah, fer like duh! You nailed it… I kept calling it roll when it’s role… okay, let the fun flames begin! In my own defense I have nothing but that I just skipped right over it… but let me tell you, Frankd6… I will remember… Oh, yes, I’ll remember… MOOOHAAAA!
The moon looks on many flowers, the flowers on but one moon.
E1Skep – I’ve always made a distinction between “roleplaying” and “roll-playing,” the latter being a subgenre of the former.
Roleplaying games are basically interactive storytelling, acting out the role of an imaginary character in a given setting. No scripts, no winning or losing – just improv with some rules to provide for resolution of complex things like fights.
Roll-playing, aka hack-and-slash or dungeon crawling, strips away the creative and interactive parts of roleplaying games and reduces them to “my character is a pile of statistics – let’s see how efficiently those statistics can kill imaginary monsters.” The “roll” comes from rolling the dice to resolve an endless series of battles, traps, and other such frippery.
One other kind of roleplaying is a little more bedroom-specific, along the lines of “The Housewife and the Poolboy,” or “The Policewoman and the Male Prostitute.” This also requires imagination, but everybody involved pretty much knows how it’s all gonna end up.
My personal favorite is: aggressive woman forces herself on unsuspecting, innocent-acting(but he really wants it!) man, who puts up a feeble attempt to fend her off until… ooh, I have said too much!!!
ChiefScott:
{Hey Brithael –
One word for ya, dude: “girls.”}
I think Brithael IS a girl. I know that I am/was. Gonna be 42 this Saturday, I prefer chocolate, sapphires, and I had BETTER get Final Fantasy VIII (video RPG, comes out today, if I don’t get it on Saturday my husband doesn’t get any for months).
Seriously, some adults play FRPGs. Even some women play.
Did I ever tell you about the time I wandered into an AOL chat room titled “Fantasy Role Playing”? It was an experience, believe me. I wanted to talk about D&D, or Gemstone, or some other RPG. The people there wanted to talk about something COMPLETELY different.
Lynn the Packrat
Oh, goody, my massive mis-post is now in the dust because we’re gonna get dirty… my favorite is the unsuspecting Tennessee Hippie and the Lusty Babe from Salt Lake City… well, I guess you have to be me… or him…
The moon looks on many flowers, the flowers on but one moon.
Cap’n Crude: thanks for explaining. Sounds interesting and it’s new for me (the roll-playing.
Kellibelli: can I call you? please? I’ll do whatever you tell me to… 