I absolutely do want to use something like that... I've thought about having correlated attributes before, and seeing that chart inspired me to get off my butt and actually do an easy / sensible one that can be used as a drop-in replacement without changing the attribute collection usually used in D&D.
Going to nine stats may be sensible, but it's a real barrier, whereas getting something sorted for the "standard six" is an easier patch. So, here goes nothing:
Have you ever studied folklore, Niklas Luhmann’s social systems theory or Mikhail Bakhtin’s genre memory? All seem applicable here. A lot of people like to slam D&D but it just isn’t about simulation. Or what it simulates is heroic narrative (folklore) without using narrativist mechanics specifically to do that. Hit points, experience points, and levels are the slippery slope to narrativism I’ve been thinking lately. Gold for experience does not make sense for simulation, yes, but it has deep folkloric and psychological resonance…
In Alarums & Excursions issue #18 i have found a paragraph saying: "I don't know what it is like in Massachussets, but out there (Palo Alto, to be precise) there are not that many DM's. (In the last three meetings of the Stanford-based D&D group, i have been called upon to run my dungeon not once, not twice, but three times).
This is a really fascinating article, thanks so much for posting it, and for your work and researching it. I was in third grade in the late seventies when I first found D&D, and even then the whole concept of HP as pure "meat shield" was very unsatisfactory, as was EGG's "explanation" in (IIRC) the DMG that HP don't actually represent physical damage per se, but instead are a conglomeration of damage, endurance, dodges, blocks/parries, shield hits, stamina and even "near misses" (the latter being particularly unsatisfactory for something that's actually called hit points LOL).
If only I'd known about correlated characteristics back then, I'd have used them in every RPG I designed in the last fifty years.
I absolutely do want to use something like that... I've thought about having correlated attributes before, and seeing that chart inspired me to get off my butt and actually do an easy / sensible one that can be used as a drop-in replacement without changing the attribute collection usually used in D&D.
Going to nine stats may be sensible, but it's a real barrier, whereas getting something sorted for the "standard six" is an easier patch. So, here goes nothing:
https://ibb.co/n8gG50YR
Have you ever studied folklore, Niklas Luhmann’s social systems theory or Mikhail Bakhtin’s genre memory? All seem applicable here. A lot of people like to slam D&D but it just isn’t about simulation. Or what it simulates is heroic narrative (folklore) without using narrativist mechanics specifically to do that. Hit points, experience points, and levels are the slippery slope to narrativism I’ve been thinking lately. Gold for experience does not make sense for simulation, yes, but it has deep folkloric and psychological resonance…
In Alarums & Excursions issue #18 i have found a paragraph saying: "I don't know what it is like in Massachussets, but out there (Palo Alto, to be precise) there are not that many DM's. (In the last three meetings of the Stanford-based D&D group, i have been called upon to run my dungeon not once, not twice, but three times).
Amazing post. I used to write about obscure fantasy rpg's in my blog (now almost defunct) so i really love this kind of discussion
Thank you
This is a really fascinating article, thanks so much for posting it, and for your work and researching it. I was in third grade in the late seventies when I first found D&D, and even then the whole concept of HP as pure "meat shield" was very unsatisfactory, as was EGG's "explanation" in (IIRC) the DMG that HP don't actually represent physical damage per se, but instead are a conglomeration of damage, endurance, dodges, blocks/parries, shield hits, stamina and even "near misses" (the latter being particularly unsatisfactory for something that's actually called hit points LOL).