@RogerBW @Taskerland "Tailored" is an excellent choice of terms in this context.
"GM-as-tailor" is something I really value from the player side of things (when I'm fortunate to have a GM who includes that in their sack of roles).
@Taskerland As always, a nice read but, as always, your broad historical assertions seem like you might be pulling everyone's leg.
Treating White Wolf (and Dragonlance, briefly) as a stand-in for "English-language" RPG history is approximately as sensible as making assertions about North American culinary trends based exclusively on several hundred visits to a Wendy's.
@SJohnRoss So you don't think that there was a broad design trend from the mid-to-late 1980s onwards towards narrower and more regimented adventure design?
Obviously I've completely failed to understand your complaints about low trust gaming.
@Taskerland I don't actually _have_ any complaints about low-trust gaming. But if I had any, I doubt they'd be less prone to misunderstanding than anything else I say on the matter. 😅
And I think, of the dozens of adventure-design trends of the mid-to-late 1980s onwards, _some_ of them include narrower and more regimented designs for certain values of "regimented" and "narrower."
But many, including the dominant trends of entire game lines, do not.
Funnily enough, there seems to have been some long overdue discourse on this question in the last few days. For ages (primarily indie) designers have been trying to normalise the idea that it is somehow disrespectful to not run games as intended.
Boo fucking hoo.
I've known some of the people in my group for 20 years and I've been running games for over 30 years. I absolutely have a better handle on what is likely to work at my table than someone who hasn't even met me.
Obviously, if regular gamers get used to the idea that they can just reskin or kitbash rules they already own then they are less likely to spend money on another minute variation on games they already own, and where would the crowd-funding hashtags be if people decided they didn't need yet another D&D or PbtA variant?
Play and mess with games you already own. Stop spending money on #ttrpg materials you won't play, don't read, and most likely won't even take out of their packaging.
@Taskerland And quite possibly the game tailored with your group in mind may suit them better than anything off-the-peg.
@RogerBW @Taskerland "Tailored" is an excellent choice of terms in this context.
"GM-as-tailor" is something I really value from the player side of things (when I'm fortunate to have a GM who includes that in their sack of roles).
@SJohnRoss @Taskerland I particularly use it to remind myself that I shouldn't expect to perform the whole process from bored sheep to well-dressed customer. I take cloth other people have made and adapt it to my purpose.
@RogerBW @Taskerland Yeah, I often do the same and it's a pretty joyful way to go about it. 😊
Sometimes I do the sheep thing, too, but even then, I mix in some retailored works for variety.
@Taskerland Well now I'm trying to remember the most recent RPG thing I bought that had _packaging._ 😮
I'm literally not sure.
Maybe something in shrinkwrap in the early 2000s? 🤔
