Doing Things Better #1: Entertaining your fellow-players

[Mailanka]

Originally Posted by whswhs

The point is that you are describing what you regard as necessary conditions. And some of them may be necessary conditions. But you went on to say that they are sufficient conditions; that is, that if you get me and four or five of my friends together, and we sit around and eat and drink and shoot the bull, that that's a perfectly good evening and fulfills all the essential functions of a gaming session. And I'm saying, and I'm pretty sure a couple of other people are saying, that no it doesn't.

Those things may be pleasant, and they may be desiderata, and they might even be essential (though I don't they all of them are); but if we don't actually game, or if we have a vague, poorly focused game because everyone is too busy chatting, or the game just isn't very good, then I won't have gotten what I came for and I'll be disappointed. And I may not come back.

I tried my best to clarify in my original post that these were the, as you say, necessary conditions, not the total sum of roleplaying. It seems I failed to communicate that. So I'll say again: I don't disagree with anything Brett said when it comes to running a good game. I just believe these elements must come first before Brett can put those subordinate principles into action.

Choosing the proper tea is important to having a tea party too. Without serving tea at a tea party, you have a crap tea party. But you still need those other elements too (ie, no people, no tea party).