Sunday, October 12, 2014

Weapon lists are not a bug.

A few statements about overblown generalized notions in regards to RPGs:

Weapon lists are not a bug in RPGs. Weapon lists do not have to be purged from all RPGs. All RPGs are not about the same things. The focus of RPG play is not to tell stories, you can also tell stories about the RPG play. One game can be used to play multiple campaigns and multiple players within those campaigns can be following different goals and will have different stories to tell.

A weapon list is not a bug in all RPGs and they do not need to be purged from RPGS.  To imply a 3 inch pen knife is of equal utility to a 2lb pointed axe head on the end of an 8 foot pole implies one is stupefyingly ignorant as to combat and physics. An RPG need not have more detail than is meaningful and notable within the genre and confines of the game but if there is any consideration as to situations where weapon A would work better then weapon B you have a game that can make use of a weapon list.

I tell stories about my games, I don't use my games to tell stories. There are stories within my games but to me an RPG campaign is not one story, a session may be part of what will become multiple stories but I as DM/GM am not telling a single story I am organizing a game and presenting it in an entertaining fashion that will allow others to enjoy a play experience and hopefully have plenty of stories to tell afterward.

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