Quote:
Originally Posted by Nightshade
People assume just as strange a things for genre emulation reasons in any number of games and I fail to see how that interferes with their roleplaying. I think you're conflating world-consistency issues with roleplaying ones here.
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To me what is interesting is how the rules support or hinder roleplaying. At the extremes you can roleplay in anything, and you can probably turn almost any game into a rote roll/board game.
My view of RPG was always that the milieu and adventure were the important things, and that character development always happened within the context of the world. It was an eye-opener for me playing 3.5 when characters started developing new abilities in response to publications of new rulebooks. The effect was somewhat subtle, but effectively the rules drove campaigns.
Yes, GMs could and did stop this when needed, but RPGs are social, and aside from the amount of energy it takes to overturn the wishes of one's players, there's a limit to how many times a GM is willing to do it.
I'll be curious to see what things 4.0 supports and what things it fights. My guess is that it will continue to move the hobby away from a focus on story and world, and continue the move toward gizmos and superpowers. That will help sell additional rulebooks. While that will be good for WotC in the short run, I fear that it will dilute what makes pen-and-paper roleplaying unique, and ultimately leave people wondering why they bother when the online RPGs take care of all of the notekeeping for them.
Steve