The Culture: The Consequences Of Restoring Proper Hobby Play For The Hobby

(Following from yesterday''s post.)

If you haven't figured it out yet, allow Gelantinous Rube to make explicit what a proper campaign looks like.

Rube's using Current Edition to make his campaign happen, so this is by no means confined to Advanced Dungeons & Dragons 1st Edition.

The Grand Campaign is a wargame. Specifically, it is a wargame in the mode that founded the hobby: a scenario where players control parties with a stake in the outcome, limited resources (time, material, information, etc.) to work with, and one or more objectives to meet in order to achieve the Win Condition before someone else gets theirs or all meet their Loss Condition.

That's what was missing heretofore, and now it is being put back into its place- and with it a lot of dysfunctions in the hobby go away for good.

No One Vision

This is not an auteur's hobby.

The Referee does not exist to craft a narrative. By being as Crom to Conan, and thus uncaring as to the outcome of any one party in the campaign, what comes of the campaign is all up to the players to decide.

This is the purpose and function of Rules As-Written being strictly adhered to. It is this policy that enables the disinterested neutrality of the Referee, and thereby guarantees the agency of the players. Players are wholly responsible for their actions in the Grand Campaign; it is their responsibility to see that their man is properly informed, outfitted, and provisioned for the task at hand- and to see that any subordinates are likewise provided for.

It is up to the players to decide what shall be done, and how to go about it. It is up to the players to make the best possible use of character resources to advance campaign objectives. It is on the players to handle the adversity thrust upon their characters, be it by other players or by nothing in particular (e.g. weather events), because the Referee's only obligation is to run the game as it is for those that show up.

Because the players as a collective drive the campaign, it cannot be the vision of any one man and neither can it be a game of narrative because Player Vs. Player gameplay actively negates narrative considerations- and yes, a wargame campaign by definition is a Player Vs. Player hobby. Not knowing who runs the Opposition Force doesn't mean that it's not such a thing.

1:1 Timekeeping ensures that characters are forced to rotate to and from the bench, meaning that players will be playing more than one character in the campaign and granting the players the opportunity to go from table to table. Multiple Referees ensure that there cannot be one vision being imposed from the top-down, especially if Referees control different regions in the campaign environment.

The campaign does not need user manipulation to produce a vision. The game itself will do what is required through playing it as it is. Now to insist that the games as a hobby be complete products that function as intended as AD&D1e does.

No Place For Bad Games

It is also this policy that compels product users to demand competent work from designers and publishers; a game that does not function properly when used strictly as-written is unfit for purpose and deserves to be excoriated as such early, often, and repeatedly until the defected product is removed, replaced, and repented for. It is not Network Effects alone that keeps D&D on top generally, and AD&D1e in particular in contention.

There are very few games ever publshed that are complete products. Most of them are within five years of AD&D1e's publication. I am doing my best to identify those that are fit for purpose, but I have not gottem all of them done yet.

Because conventional play runs off the Cargo Cult normes that includes Rule Zero, designers and publishers have a free out for incompetent and incomplete work being published and put on the market: "Just house rule it."

This leaning on Rule Zero not only means that tables are segregated by Referees making rules up, making it impossible to have a massive hobby community around a grand campaign, it means that subpar product--"Tofu Dreg" game design--is being passed off as quality work under the excuse that users can fix anything defective after the sale. A hobby scene needs complete, competent products as much as it needs proper play procedures to thrive and reach full flowering.

We don't assemble hammers from scratch. We don't install "mandatory mods" for wrenches. We buy the thing, we take it out of the box, and we use it as it is as intended. If it can't be done like that, the widget is broken and the makers fucked up!

No Place For Wankers

The player is expected to conform to the game. The game does not conform to the player. A complete, competent game ensures that using it as-written always produces the promised gameplay experience. AD&D1e delivers on this. So does Classic Traveller. So does classic Call of Cthulhu. So does Gamma World, and others that are complete, competent games.

A player that whines about how the game plays, at best, is one that is mistake about what the game is about and does not see how the procedures for play are not bugs but features. Unfortunately, due to how long this rot has festered, there is a far-from-trivial amount of people who don't care about the intended play experience and instead just want it changed to conform to their whims- whatever they are. These are the shitters that install botting software when they play MMORPGs because they suck too much and refuse to Git Gud. Wargame hobbies are hobbies of skill and acumen; if you can't be bothered to develop them, you have no seat at the table, and beyond the gate you go.

The former, as they can yet be reformed, are to be shown what they miss and--if after seeing how the machine works--they do not like it, shown the door. The latter just get the boot and are warned of to others lest they make others go rotten.

There can be no pity for such ankle-biting bottom-feeders, while all others who are willing and able to master the game are welcome to come tread the thrones of the Earth under your sandled feet.

This is a hobby for those who see Conan and want to be like him, rather than those who see Conan and wish to yoke him into servility.