Quote:
Originally Posted by Mark Skarr
...if you tell someone about a book, or movie, or tv series, you don't tell them everything, you "edit" it down to what your audience would find interesting.
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Yes.
Like @Anthony, I have definitely heard far too many terrible RPG war stories. (I don't care about your 50th level ninja anti-paladin!) I agree that the storytellers don't do nearly enough editing; like beginning writers, they don't want to cut anything. They also often conflate the game-mechanical bits of the story with the narrative elements. The mechanics only mean something to people who know the game system well. And even then, it's a lot more exciting to roll a critical hit than to hear about someone else rolling one.
But, I do believe that most games have satisfying stories embedded in them. They just may require more skill to extract than many tellers have. (Or more time to dedicate to editing and rehearsal.) This, to me, matches real life. Many people bore me with rambling stories from their lives. But the people who captivate my attention with their tales don't necessarily have more exciting things going on; they just know how to build dramatic tension in the telling.