At 10:30 2/23/00 -0800, Alex Ferguson wrote:
>
>
>George W. Harris:
>> A game system is only prescriptive if the GM wants it to be; most GMs
>take
>> the results of the system as suggestions only. It never makes for more
>> work for the GM if the system makes detailed, concrete suggestions, and it
>> frequently makes for a lot less. The best way to encourage GMs to give
>> detailed descriptions is to give them lots of help.
>
>I think we're meandering from the original point here: the issue was
>not the copiousness of the examples of play, it's the 'authorial tone'
>with which they're delivered. For example, few wpould trouble to
>deny that AD&D 1st ed. was written in an exceedingly prescriptive
>voice; however, since EGG neglected to make himself omnipotent, said
>prescriptiveness merely got him widely mocked, as much as it got him
>slavishly adhered to.
So, then the goal would seem to be a text which provides plenty of clear,
detailed suggestions as to what various game terms might mean (such as the
various magical feats in HW) both in game-mechanical and game-world terms,
but delivers such in a non-prescriptive tone? I hope that HW achieves this
goal.
- --
Doesn't the fact that there are *exactly* 50 states seem a little suspicious?
George W. Harris gharris_at_mindspring.com
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