vdonnut

I just watched an analysis of a #NeoTrad actual play game and I fundamentally don't understand it. It seems contradictory to me. The game is full of jokes and regular ass DnD superhero stuff but it deals with genre tropes of horror films and literature, sprinkles them on top of adventure. Is this the culture of play?

I recall Trad being much more leaning on immersion and "simulation", I guess? It was also dependent on tropes but I think they were more ingrained?

Apr 25 at 9:57amWeb
Show threadvdonnutApr 25
I have a hard time wrapping my head around NeoTrad in general, it seems to be escaping my minds grasp like an eldritch knowledge. OSR? Yeah, I get it. Story Games? Yeah, easy. Trad? I have a hard time putting it to words but I get it on a very primal level of unequal storytelling. NeoTrad? No idea, I can perceive it but no deeper engagement happens.
Show threadRoger BW 😷Apr 25
@vdonnut Is there a manifesto somewhere? I find it easier to understand the principles of a play style from what people say about them than from observing them in play. (I just wanna think like my character, man.)
Show threadKera Ep. 113 (feat. Ed Zitron)Apr 25
@RogerBW @vdonnut iirc NeoTrad is just OC-focused play, emphasis on ongoing narratives, coauthorship, and strong characters over OSR's procedure supremacy
Show threadKera Ep. 113 (feat. Ed Zitron)Apr 25
@RogerBW @vdonnut its weird that its kinda become a divergent branch of storygames given that The NeoTrad game is Apocalypse World
Show threadRoger BW 😷Apr 25
@vortiwife @vdonnut See that's where I get confused. The things you said earlier all sound like things I do in games, but AW prevents me from doing. (Though it may signify that I regard good narrative as something arising organically from character rather than externally imposed.)
Show threadKera Ep. 113 (feat. Ed Zitron)Apr 25
@RogerBW @vdonnut oh yeah i consider AW to be an imprecise way of getting to its stated goal of replicating troupe-style ArM play from the 80s
Show threadvdonnutApr 25

@vortiwife I understand it on a theoretical level, you all have your characters who go through their literary/cinematic-inspired narratives along the general adventure. But that doesn't fold to me in a game shape somehow.

@RogerBW

Show threadvdonnutApr 25

@vortiwife @RogerBW Especially with horror, it neither creates a coherent horror story as in Trad, nor it does deal with emergent slasher horror of OSR, not even communal horror building of story games. It escapes my definitions and my intuintions and creates this itch for knowing what is outside of my ability. Weird feeling.

So this is how you feel when you encounter a Shoggoth or a Cthulhu! (but stronger)

Show threadKera Ep. 113 (feat. Ed Zitron)Apr 25
@vdonnut @RogerBW most of the shoggoths I've net have been lovely, personally
Show threadRoger BW 😷Apr 25
@vdonnut @vortiwife Closest I've come to that experience is implementing the quicksort algorithm in PostScript.