31 Questions For Barking Alien - Phase II - Question 11

It's Lights, Camera, Action time with my friend Nick's box office blockbuster of a question...or is an award winning documentary?

Question #11...

What are your thoughts on cinematic gameplay and design vs. simulationist gameplay and design?

I'm going to preface my full answer with a bit of a teaser trailer...all my games are Cinematic games. They all feature Cinematic Gameplay. 

I can't help it. It's baked into the reason I got interested in TRPGs in the first place. At the age of 8 it wasn't my vast knowledge of Sword & Sorcery literature that got me to excited to play as a hero going on adventures and fighting terrible monsters. It was Movies, Television, Animation, and Comic Books. I was raised on The Muppet Show, The Marx Brothers, Mel Brooks, Looney Tunes, Disney films, Star Trek, Star Wars, Superman, The Legion of Superheroes, and a host of other entertainment media that taught me the essentials of Gamemastering; no not rules knowledge silly, the important stuff!

Comedic and dramatic timing, building a scene, cool locations and backdrops, camera angles, sound effects, voice acting, improvisation, and everything that makes a given moment or series of moments in a game exciting and memorable. 

With that out of the way...

My thoughts on the subject kind of go the way of trying to be an 'Emulationist'.

My goal when creating a campaign is to emulate the genre, setting, atmosphere, and particulars of whatever it is I and those I'm gaming with are focused on portraying. 

For example, let's take the American West circa the mid-to-late 19th century. If I were trying to emulate the West as it truly was, if I were doing a realistic portrayal of the era, I would want a Simulationist game. I'd need to track resources, count bullets, have deadly combat, disease rules, etc.

I thin it would require that in order to lean into the brutal and desperate nature of survival in the American wilderness, the cutthroat politics and business of an expanding nation, and the

 tensions between the settlers and the indigenous peoples, etc. 

On the other hand, if I were trying to emulate Wild West movies and TV shows, I would go with a Cinematic system. Something that keeps the feel of the 'Old West' but allows for more dramatic battles and crazy stunts. 

If I were making a 'Bonanza RPG', I would go Cinematic but search for one the specifically modeled the tropes and cliché story beats we saw in that series.

Near future, realistic Science Fiction like the upcoming Pioneer RPG isn't a rollicking Space Opera like Stars Without Number. Nor is Stars Without Number the same sort of rollicking Space Opera the same as Star Trek Adventures. Each of these is its own animal and I am looking for the RPG whose gameplay matches the substance and style of that distinctive and unique animal.

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Barking Alien

I feel the need to acknowledge the deaths of Rob Reiner and his wife Michele.

I grew up watching Rob Reiner as Michael 'Meathead' Stivic on All in the Family. Later, the accomplished comedic actor and director would direct some of my all time favorite films. In addition to his Entertainment Industry accomplishments, Reiner was a good and decent man who warmed the hearts and inspired the minds of those who knew him and appreciated his work.

I didn't expect this particular passing to effect me so but it has.

Rest in Peace.