"Mech-Piloting" is a metaphor I use to refer to a specific approach to tabletop RPGs that really doesn't belong in the medium.
- The catalyst for defining the term comes from this post: My Life as a Gamer: Why Excessive Mechanics Are Bad in Tabletop RPGs
- The definition is here: My Life as a Gamer: How Mech Piloting Became the Norm
- The videogame influence on the term: My Life as a Gamer: The Rise of the Mech Pilots
- Additional Commentary: Mech Piloting: How The Mindset Works
I will add to this page as I produce posts that develop the concept further.
Would this be an example of mech piloting?
ReplyDeleteI’m watching this youtube advice and thinking to myself: What happened to roleplaying a character, emulating a shared world, and discovering character growth through emergent play? Do we throw that all out because a player wants to “optimize his build” around a series of mathematical formulae encoded 5e’s character creation mini-game?
Put another way, what fun is it for the people starting with actual characters — like a down-on-his-luck commoner, a socially-climbing scoundrel, or a defamed fighter looking for redemption — who then have to include this “scourge aasimar” fighter-paladin tank “optimized for aggro” who wields a shield and whip, and uses a lance-equipped hippo as a mount that can be folded into a looney-tunes suitcase for carrying into dungeons...not because the character makes sense fictionally but because it’s the “optimized tank build”?
Then when we get into combat, we are no longer describing how we are engaging the enemies tactically, but rather which special features we are deploying...? This strikes as so tedious and un-fun every time the tank’s turn rolls around.
So correct me if I am wrong, but this is mech piloting, correct?
Here is the offending party: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YrHb4jq3nes
Yes, that's Mech Piloting.
DeleteAlso, Pick A Name.