Re: [BNW] re: Death of a Campaign (and Defiance Sourcebook)

["Steve Crow" <crow_steve@hotmail.com>]

>Steve Crow wrote:
>
> >   Like I noted earlier, maybe I'm old-fashioned, but a Guide can best 
>use
> > his judgement if the framework is well-defined in the first place.
>
>Agreed. It looks to me that Matt is more interested in enforcing his own
>vision instead of giving the GMs the tools to create their personal version
>of 'his' world. This is the case with both the powers and the world
>background.
>

Hmmm.  At best, I think a few of Matt's statements (in the accumulated 
rulings list, and his Afterword in the Defiants SB) _might_ support such an 
interpretation.  But even if true, and as I noted, that's why he's getting 
the big bucks.  If it works for him and AEG, more power to him.  I don't 
think as far as the story he's telling, the approach is necessarily a bad 
one.  Or an unreasonable one, since it's approach that's seems to be working 
for other folks like Pinnacle.

It could just as well be said that Matt's "limited powers/players can't use 
their own tastes much" approach does make for easy jump-starting into the 
game.  However, if the limited-powers approach doesn't appeal to folks in 
general, then ease of entry doesn't make a damn bit of difference.  _That's_ 
the problem I'm seeing, not any disagreement with Matt's approach to telling 
his story.

>Secondly the political view in the game is questionable. And this game is
>the most blatantly political game I have ever seen. Fortunately the message
>in the game is so laughably simple to look through that they actually make
>for a lot of potential fun.
>
>Patriots speech before the death squad almost made me puke. Who can stand
>listening to such bullshit? I find the setting cool, but some of those
>people in the defiance are intolerable.
>

To each their own, I guess.  Certainly there's nothing inherently wrong with 
making a "statement" in a RPG, and it's got to be kept relatively simple.

And again, the problem from my (admittedly) limited viewpoint is not that 
folks object to the message or the story per se.  There's nothing in the 
reviews and general hype to suggest the problems (if you want to call them 
that - I don't, necessarily) you point out.  I suspect folks could care less 
about that for the purposes of just playing a demo.  "Underground heroes" 
(to sum it up) doesn't seem to be a problem to folks as a concept.

It's that folks don't like the approach to the power-part of character 
design.

>Nikolaj Lemche


---

Steve Crow

"Worm Can Opener Extraordinare"

Check out my website at:  http://www.geocities.com/Area51/Stargate/4991/

______________________________________________________
Get Your Private, Free Email at http://www.hotmail.com