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Message no. 1
From: Bull bull@*******.net
Subject: Dynamic vs. Static Game Worlds (was RE: SR Narrowing of focus)
Date: Mon, 16 Aug 1999 21:27:45 -0400 (EDT)
At 05:04 PM 8/16/99 -0500, Mark Fender wrote these timeless words:

>Besides, what's wrong with a fixed world? Our old SR game took place in
>Seattle, wherein our GM ignored every sourcebook that ever came out. It was
>fun. It didn't advance according to SR's timeline, but it was fun.
>
There is not a thing wrong with it, honestly. And SR can easily be played
along those lines. Hell, if nothing else, it really makes buying books a
lot cheaper, since you don;t need anything but the core books.

However, the idea of a Dynamic, ever changing game environment is something
that is becoming more and more popular with game designers and players
alike. It makes you feel like you're a part of something larger. It's a
living, breathing world.

A Static Game World, if you have a semi decent GM, can be a living,
breathing game world as well. But, at the same time, you can;t talk to
someone else playing the same game, and talk to them about events and such
and expect them to know what you're talking about, because suddenly any
events that happen in a game revolve solely around the creativity of your
GM and his imagination.

And frankly, it comes right down to what you want to play.

As I said, the Dynamic world is becoming very popular. Just look at the
new 7th Seas RPG by AEG, or Pinnacles Deadlands, Hell on Earth, and their
new Brave New World RPG. They don't even tell the GM the whole story...
They dole out bits and pices of it, so that the entire game is a campign,
for everyone. You can play with just a part of it and ignore the
"secrets", you can buy the new stuff as it comes out and play along with
the evlolving campaign, or you can simply sit back and wait for the
storyline to play out a bit, then play with what you want.

It's all a matter of chouice and style, my friends :] Enjoy... :]

Bull
--
Bull -- The Best Ork Decker You Never Met
bull@*******.net ===== bull22@***********.com
http://shadowrun.html.com/users/bull
ICQ: 35931890
====================================================== =
= Order is Illusion! Chaos is Bliss! Got any Fours? = =
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-- Greg Proops, "Vs."
Message no. 2
From: Marc Renouf renouf@********.com
Subject: Dynamic vs. Static Game Worlds (was RE: SR Narrowing of focus)
Date: Tue, 17 Aug 1999 10:01:41 -0400 (EDT)
On Mon, 16 Aug 1999, Bull wrote:

> However, the idea of a Dynamic, ever changing game environment is something
> that is becoming more and more popular with game designers and players
> alike. It makes you feel like you're a part of something larger. It's a
> living, breathing world.

Yup. And it's the role of the GM to make the world dynamic, not
the publishing company. I agree wholeheartedly that there is something
inherently cool about playing in a game that has an advancing timeline, a
well-defined background, and dynamic actions going on "behind-the-scenes."
But frankly, I'd rather do it myself. Perhaps my most favorite
gaming environment is the Harn setting put out by Columbia Games. The
history, politics, and setting are all richly detailed, moreso than any
other published setting I've ever seen. They are also frozen at a
specific time. The company has vowed not to put out any "expansion" or
"update" pieces, simply because there's no need to. The setting stands on
its own and doesn't need gimmicks (a *dragon* elected as president? Come
on) to sell.
Sure, you can't confer about the world's sweeping changes with
other gamer geeks from around the globe, but half the fun of the Harn
mailing list is seeing how other people interpreted things and what
directions their campaigns took given the same starting point.

> As I said, the Dynamic world is becoming very popular.

Yeah, that's because someone somewhere figured out that gamers
tend to be an obsessive lot, and will pretty much buy *everything* that
comes out for their game. The more "updates" and "changes" you make
to a
world, the more people feel the desire to buy the books just to see what's
going on. It's marketing, my friend, and you are the target audience.
Honestly, I have to agree with whomever it was that made the
comment about Battletech. I think the coming of the clans pretty much
destroyed what was otherwise a very cool concept - struggling houses
fighting a dirty war of attrition using tech they couldn't replace.
Seriously, I see some of the same stuff going on with Shadowrun. I'm glad
that Mike backed off the whole Earthdawn crossover thing, because it was
getting ridiculous. Every location sourcebook that came out was bigger,
meaner, nastier, and more magical than the last in this Rifts-like spiral
of munchkinesque delight. Fortunately it slowed down, but then RA:S came
along and re-started the spiral in a new technical direction.
Basically, I'm to the point now where I just buy core rulebooks.
The location sourcebooks by-and-large just piss me off. I have an
established campaign with an established history, an established
direction, and a well-detailed idea of what's going on in various parts of
the world. My players recently moved from Detroit (which was *nothing*
like the drivel in Target:UCAS) to Saigon. I didn't need a
"Target:Southeast Asia," I just did the work myself, and I'm happier with
the result. So it's not the same as anybody else's campaign. Does that
make it wrong? No. Does it mean my players don't like it? Absolutely
not. Does it mean that they're upset that Bug City and Super Tuesday
never happened in my campaign? Nope, because they were of much the same
opinion as I on those scores.

> It's all a matter of chouice and style, my friends :] Enjoy... :]

This much is true. If you want to slavishly buy all of the
sourcebooks and novels in a vain attempt to "keep up" with the published
story line, go for it. But there are those of us who don't and are just
as happy because of it.

Marc Renouf (ShadowRN GridSec - "Bad Cop" Division)

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ShadowRN FAQ <http://shadowrun.html.com/hlair/faqindex.php3>;

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