Terence R. McCain <terencermcc...@earthlink.net> wrote in message <news:1095726329.wtmeIwVgwX+Y2JzwYXYACg@teranews>...

Hiya Terence:

Are you speaking from the PoV of Argh and Urgelt? How long ago was it
that you last played in the Lok Grotons?

CL was, to me, the eye-opener with regard to the problem of casual vs.
professional player. Don't get me wrong, I loved the concept of CL
from day one but was most put off after offical beta ended by the lack
of ... a point (other than socialization).

In fact, the cliquiness became such a strong parallel to politicking
in the real world that it left a bitter taste in my mouth. In the real
world I have to deal with incompetent leaders/managers, nepotism in
business, political correctness and political corruption, and the
lowest common denominator mentality of the cancerous socialism -- in a
fantasy game I dreamed I could escape these things. I dreamed wrong.

Being part of a clan really drove this aspect home. From my first week
of clanning I was heavily involved in developing an egalitarian clan
based on merit and not patronage. I fleshed out the realms by creating
in a vacuum an entire world ofplaces and details. But it was not meant
to be. I don't even know if Rising Claw is still an active clan. Lord
knows it got no support from Joe or the powers that be. The places I
created (for lack of any background material) got plastered
willy-nilly onto the map of a player in better favour with DT. Blah
blah blah.

It is in the choices of what to automate, I think. More so, it is in
the supervision/administration. Part of why CL was always Evening at
the Improv to me is that ... there were no rules or guidelines. I
never saw an idiot player getting an in-character chastisement. The
closest is when one of my own characters commented on the fickle
nature of the gods and was suddenly zotted by lightining and
surrounded by frogs.

We were allowed to make our characters be from anywhere (even other
planets, right Odesseus?) but with the risk that DT would override
anything and make entire origins useless.

Without a GM team who sparks encounters and sets the mood, tone,
setting, situation ... it is a whole bunch of unconnected improv
skits.

Were I DT, I would have published a back-story, detailed the races a
bit better, created a map and THEN let the players sign up. If I, as a
DM for D&D just throw a module in front of my players and say "do what
you want." the game will not be very entertaining and I will not be
picked as GM. Instead, my players leave the table entertained and
looking forward to the next session.

You can't automate an interactive game. Someone (prefereably many
someones) have to establish what can and can't be done and prod them
along. To have littel "journeys of discovery" along the way is good.
To make the primary purpose of a game as journey of discovery is an
invitation to malaise and disharmony.

Player 1: Sylvans are 20' tall.
Player 2: No they aren't.
GM: Sylvans are the same height as humans.

Only one of these is correct. They cannot all be correct or there is
no realism because there are no ground rules.

Hmm ... never actually had these problems with NwN. Biggest group of
players was four plus a GM. (Loved HotU.)

Heh. Indeed. It was gonna be more like classic Traveler than D&D and
was going pretty well. The biggest flaw was the server switching and,
at the time, a high speed connection was required. Now, everyone has
DSL, no?

Maybe one day.

Good luck in your quest for the 'experience.' I believe the limitation
is not digital but organic. I don't think you can automate a group of
game players anymore than you can automate a kindergarten.

FWIW.

  - Sheldon