"It's about adventuring"? (was Re: Playtest Reports: Prophecy of the Priestess, Part 2)

Dragonkat wrote:
On Oct 29, 2:53 pm, Alcore <alc...@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:

On Sun, 28 Oct 2007, Dragonkat wrote:

On Oct 28, 1:13 pm, "Malachias Invictus" <invictuse...@xxxxxxxxx>
wrote:

[snip]

Several of the game designers have been very frank about issues and problems
with the new system. This article needed some hints about crunch, period.

[snip]


So, you consider 'minutia' to be just fluffy, and the spoilers &
insights the only crunch? Gamma World suffered from not having
coherent 'minutia'...

I'm having a similar argument with Malachias in a different thread.

He appears to share vision with the designers of 4e and summed it up as:
"This game is about adventuring."

Therefore anything that is *not* "about adventuring" is unimportant.

This is certainly correct.



It's about killing the monsters and taking their treasure.

But this is not.


The game IS about adventuring. It's about discovering what's wrong with the world, and setting it right. It's about the disappearance of children from a small town, and the horror behind that, and the few people willing and able to face down that horror and triumph.

It's about cresting the mountain after a gruelling climb to see your enemies gathered before you in a horde that darkens the slopes, and knowing you must hold the pass, just you few, or all you hold dear will be destroyed.

It's about bypassing a thousand tricks and traps, evading a dozen guards, and removing the priceless artifact from the Archmage's fortress.

It's about choosing life over death, death over slavery, triumph over loss, courage over fear, love over hate. It's about changing the world, one small deed at a time. It's about rescuing a dog or cat in the street, and finding that deed embroils you in a conflict with the corrupt rulers of a nation.

It's about the Justiciar, Krog-Da-CHA, played by my friend Carl Edlund, sacrificing his life in a six-hour ritual that held my players spellbound and drew them all to participate with him, so that his soul could be released into the afterlife to do battle with a demon beyond the mortal realm.

It's about Kyrie Ross, the Phoenix Saint of Myrionar, infected with vampirism, having herself staked out on a hill to face the rising sun; to have the infection burned out of her, or to die herself, her soul still untainted.

It's about the Wanderer and the Seedling Heroes, at the Seige of Minas Tirith, almost out of spells, out of arrows, out of tricks, seeing a Nazgul come forth through the smoke... and giving one last tired grin and charging, so that the monster won't catch the fleeing populace.

THAT is adventuring.

Killing the monsters and taking their treasure? That's just one small part of it.



--
Sea Wasp
/^\
;;;
Live Journal: http://seawasp.livejournal.com

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