D&D At Its Best: The Arch Game

[@JackMcCarthyWriter]

All content aside, i really enjoy your enthusiasm. There's a passion for the hobby that comes through.

[@CantRIP9389]

"Collective experience" is a new pillar/quad into the mix for me. I don't hate including that. Might be a useful way to treat it 🤔👍 The second part is what most people don't seem to consider much. The "quads" feed each other. A good combat is so much better when the stakes are personal. Personal stuff is so much deeper when it involves more than just some sort of solipsism. Settings are much better when supported by simulation of details.... I think it's basically fractal. You could argue that every character is actually a self insert. You could also argue that there isn't really a self. That's one of those things I think that could just go round and round until everyone passes out or just hurls, I guess lol

[@Architrave-Gaming]

Glad to be making sense to someone. Thanks for the comment.

[@CantRIP9389]

@@Architrave-Gaming So then... if "collective experience" is a quad, does it receive amplification from being supported the other quads? If so, does it in the same way the others do in, say, GNS theory, or differently? I know you got views on the details of that :)

[@Architrave-Gaming]

GNS theory actually perfectly lines up with this viewpoint, as does self-determination theory (autonomy, competence, connectedness). The narrative, the collective shared story, the social interaction between players and their characters, that's all that same quadrant (I don't have a good name for it yet). But narrative is technically a larger concept that is applicable to several things, at least in terms of tabletop. You can narrate the simulation and the exploration, you can narrate the adventure and the combat, and you can narrate the social interactions and the story of events that unfold. Technically, narration is how you experience all of these in tabletop but what GNS theory means by 'narrative' is more specific, it only applies to the unfolding of story events.