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Thengel
Joined: Fri Mar 13, 2009 10:52 pm Posts: 1356
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 20 minutes of fun...
Yeah, you all know the good ole Ryan quote. So, does it hold for minis? I mean, it would not seem to since you are going back and forth. Could an RPG be made so that everyone "had a turn" and you could speed up and maintain that fun ratio?
....or....
Is it a case more like foreplay? Is it moderate fun leading up to a much larger payoff? This is my view but if you approach RPGs like a boardgame and think there is no fun in role-playing buying supplies from the that stubborn gnomish storekeep with the daughter who keeps making eyes at you behind his back...then I could definitely see it Ryan's way. If the "fun" is defined as combat or one singular type of event, then yeah, you might be bored for 4 hours so you can have 20 minutes of combat but I would then question whether you are playing the right game. This is not a condemnation but a simple fact. Maybe you would be happier with a board game or minis game. It would provide that constant "challenge/fun" you are looking for. Perhaps another aspect would be the type of RPG you are playing which brings me around full circle to my original question...
Thoughts on a way to make an RPG that has constant player involvement? Think of the timing of a board game where everyone had a turn or with some minis games where you have movement/combat phases. Could that kind of timing be adapted to RPGs?
_________________ Morality, good and evil, comes from man, not gods.
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Sun Feb 24, 2013 10:02 pm |
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Kyle Aaron
Joined: Fri Mar 20, 2009 9:10 pm Posts: 44 Location: Melbourne, Australia
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 Re: 20 minutes of fun...
It's simply that Ryan is probably a crap GM.
_________________ "Don't let yourself get too worried about all this talk about roleplaying [...] the ultimate object of all this is for everyone to have fun, not to recreate some form of high dramatic art." - Dungeoneer
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Sun Feb 24, 2013 11:15 pm |
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flyingmice
Site Admin
Joined: Fri Mar 20, 2009 7:00 pm Posts: 1576
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 Re: 20 minutes of fun...
This one mystifies me. All I can say.
-clash
_________________Flying Mice Games/Better Mousetrap Games: http://jalan.flyingmice.com/flyingmice.htmlDesigning: Lowell Was Right! Last Release: IHW: Pigboats, Volant - Kingdoms of Air and Stone I FLY BY NIGHT Blog: http://iflybynight.blogspot.com/
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Sun Feb 24, 2013 11:16 pm |
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Thengel
Joined: Fri Mar 13, 2009 10:52 pm Posts: 1356
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 Re: 20 minutes of fun...
I have to say, I was a bit taken aback by how everyone just nodded their heads and agreed with him like it was simple truth. I have always enjoyed the game, but it came to me that if he was focused on combat or some short lived aspect of play, it could well be that he only enjoys about 20 minutes of his 4 hours of play. Of course, Kyles theory may be correct as well. 
_________________ Morality, good and evil, comes from man, not gods.
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Mon Feb 25, 2013 9:59 am |
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flyingmice
Site Admin
Joined: Fri Mar 20, 2009 7:00 pm Posts: 1576
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 Re: 20 minutes of fun...
Kyle's post *does* pass Occam's Razor...  -clash
_________________Flying Mice Games/Better Mousetrap Games: http://jalan.flyingmice.com/flyingmice.htmlDesigning: Lowell Was Right! Last Release: IHW: Pigboats, Volant - Kingdoms of Air and Stone I FLY BY NIGHT Blog: http://iflybynight.blogspot.com/
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Mon Feb 25, 2013 11:15 am |
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Thengel
Joined: Fri Mar 13, 2009 10:52 pm Posts: 1356
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 Re: 20 minutes of fun...
Well, there was just such a hoopla about it when Ryan spouted off about it that it makes one wonder if I am just looking at RPGs in a very and fundamentally different way. I like the hunting through a space port looking for the best deal on your FTL relays. If the GM thinks that is made of boring, I probably am in the wrong game. No shame on him or me, we just want different things out of our gaming experience.
But then I wonder, re-reading the article, if fun==combat or am I missing something.
Ah well, thanks for the responses.
_________________ Morality, good and evil, comes from man, not gods.
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Mon Feb 25, 2013 10:33 pm |
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flyingmice
Site Admin
Joined: Fri Mar 20, 2009 7:00 pm Posts: 1576
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 Re: 20 minutes of fun...
If fun==combat, and he's playing D&D, what was his problem?  -clash
_________________Flying Mice Games/Better Mousetrap Games: http://jalan.flyingmice.com/flyingmice.htmlDesigning: Lowell Was Right! Last Release: IHW: Pigboats, Volant - Kingdoms of Air and Stone I FLY BY NIGHT Blog: http://iflybynight.blogspot.com/
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Mon Feb 25, 2013 11:32 pm |
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JDCorley
Joined: Sun Apr 12, 2009 10:42 pm Posts: 925
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 Re: 20 minutes of fun...
I've been in sessions like that - normally it's due to games where my character isn't doing much or saying much for extended periods. This can be for many reasons: the party's split up and someone else is interacting with an NPC, it's a D&D combat and I'm not playing a spellcaster who has to sit there and pore over a shit ton of options every time their turns comes up, it's a game where I'm experienced in playing it and everyone else is still trying to figure it out...or yeah, the GM is sometimes bad (this includes me, sometimes.)
I don't think it's generally true, though. There's a lot of very distinct problems that can lead to that outcome, though.
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Sat Mar 02, 2013 12:08 pm |
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RedBlok
Joined: Fri May 22, 2009 1:39 pm Posts: 171
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 Re: 20 minutes of fun...
I think we've all been in games or run games that were just off kilter or one of those games where nothing pans out the way it could have or should have. I know I've been bored before during a game session due to a group split or too much focus being placed on one PC (that is a GM issue).
The 20 minutes of fun thing, however, is pretty much crap. I've never experienced that. I could say 50% of the session was fun at the very least. This is still not as good as it should be, but if I was in a game that had 20 minutes of fun for every 4 hours played - man I'd probably make it through one game and ask "Was this a bad night or is it always like this?"
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Fri Mar 15, 2013 10:47 am |
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knarf
Joined: Tue Aug 18, 2009 5:32 pm Posts: 84
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 Re: 20 minutes of fun...
I'm almost wondering if the quote is referring to the time taken to resolve a combat vs the time it takes for combat to happen in-game. So "20 minutes of fun" could equal the cool action-movie combat scene that everyone is envisioning as they play, while the 4 hours is a reference to the length of time it takes to actually resolve the action, with players rolling dice and picking moves and such.
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Mon May 27, 2013 9:29 am |
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