Well, an over limiting definition. You can only play the simulation portion of an RPG as a war-game. the rest of the time you are either story-telling or role-playing. The fourth style, power-gaming, can occur anytime, but is often tied to the war-gaming style.
Each style looks at the world and game from a different direction. Each can be enjoyable and everyone has one or two that they prefer. When similar style players get together, the games are usually fun. If contrasting styles get together, boredom, tension, and arguments will increase.
>If you and your friends meet each Friday evening to
>tell jokes you are not doing "true" role-play <snip>
>And to role-play properly a character you have
>to understand how he perceives his world.
Frankly, I don't -like- "true" role-playing, it bores me. that's why I stay out of live-action games. If I stay in character more than two minutes I am ready to go to the next scene. I prefer story-telling and war-gaming. That doesn't make me wrong, just different. Most of my group feel the same and we have a lot of fun.
This also doesn't mean that I don't have a firm grip on "Glorantha as the inhabitants see it", at least within the region we play, but my play style is just different. We minimize the time spent on interactions to put more time into moving the story.
>better role-playing groups should IMHO aim at level 3
>Better war-gaming group probably will aim at level 1,
>better writers at level 2 and better scientists at level 4.
I feel that the fundamental flaw was for someone to start calling these levels. They are not ranked, they are corners, points of view, or projections of the essential whole.
View 1 is important to war-gamers, and power-gamers, View 2 is important to everyone, you can't hero-quest without it, View 3 is important to story-tellers and role-players, View 4 is important to power-gamers and anyone who wants their PC to shape the world. All four are important to GM's who have to write the stories, run thebattles, provide character interactions, and have some opinions on how things really work so that they can interpret unexpected actions and interpolate mythic effects.
It is impossible to restrict yourself to only one view and still actually
play the game.
Stancliff (the other Boggle)
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