Middle of the road
((this is cross posted to my LJ and OWbN LJ. Disagree or agree all you want. Just no flames. This was my reply on the Council list to a current thread about OWbN affairs))
Actually I had a really good discussion about this sort of thing with a friend of mine out here and long time OwBN-er.
I've seen this sort of microcosm before and watched how the entire organization crumbled to the ground. He and I both have actually.
On one extreme you have people claming genre, pushing for more restrictive and limiting rules. "Players are twinks" is usually what is said and their rally cry.
And on the other hand you have people doing whatever the hell they want. They make no bones about the demon that dropped in for tea at Elysium and the kindred newborns that their garou lover spawned the other night. "Stop telling me how to RP" is what we usually hear from them.
But what we both agreed on was that there has to be a middle ground. Going back to the microcosm effect, games that were too restrictive saw people leave because the ability to RP was stiffled. Characters became similar cardboard cut outs due to straight and narrow rule sets and strict adherance therin.
But the flip side saw players leaving the unrestrictive games because things weren't even in proportion any longer. Characters had to come up with something even more outlandish than the next in order to stand out in the crowd. And storylines were squashed because, hey everyone carries Pym Particles in their back pocket and has the money/power/magic/might/character to fix whatever possible problem they might have. Including kindred pregnancy! Wow aint it cool?
Slapping more rules on the org isn't going to fix the problem any more than letting people run rampant. Either slant, taken too heavily, will just give one a false sense of control. Rule extremists thinking that they are "keeping the wonkiness out" and Rule relaxers (I know, it's not a word :) ) will think they are telling these AWEsome stories.
But as we concluded, you can lead a horse to the water but cannot make him drink. People are going to think what they think and feel how the feel. I think in the end, if we don't find middle ground and stop the extremes on both sides we eventually wont have any ground left.
I'll end this on a quote that I found awhile back as I was discussing the finer points of artillery online.
"If everyone is thinking alike, someone isn't thinking."
- General George Patton Jr
-Jerome
Actually I had a really good discussion about this sort of thing with a friend of mine out here and long time OwBN-er.
I've seen this sort of microcosm before and watched how the entire organization crumbled to the ground. He and I both have actually.
On one extreme you have people claming genre, pushing for more restrictive and limiting rules. "Players are twinks" is usually what is said and their rally cry.
And on the other hand you have people doing whatever the hell they want. They make no bones about the demon that dropped in for tea at Elysium and the kindred newborns that their garou lover spawned the other night. "Stop telling me how to RP" is what we usually hear from them.
But what we both agreed on was that there has to be a middle ground. Going back to the microcosm effect, games that were too restrictive saw people leave because the ability to RP was stiffled. Characters became similar cardboard cut outs due to straight and narrow rule sets and strict adherance therin.
But the flip side saw players leaving the unrestrictive games because things weren't even in proportion any longer. Characters had to come up with something even more outlandish than the next in order to stand out in the crowd. And storylines were squashed because, hey everyone carries Pym Particles in their back pocket and has the money/power/magic/might/character to fix whatever possible problem they might have. Including kindred pregnancy! Wow aint it cool?
Slapping more rules on the org isn't going to fix the problem any more than letting people run rampant. Either slant, taken too heavily, will just give one a false sense of control. Rule extremists thinking that they are "keeping the wonkiness out" and Rule relaxers (I know, it's not a word :) ) will think they are telling these AWEsome stories.
But as we concluded, you can lead a horse to the water but cannot make him drink. People are going to think what they think and feel how the feel. I think in the end, if we don't find middle ground and stop the extremes on both sides we eventually wont have any ground left.
I'll end this on a quote that I found awhile back as I was discussing the finer points of artillery online.
"If everyone is thinking alike, someone isn't thinking."
- General George Patton Jr
-Jerome