Chatty's Reruns: The Rule of Cool
I’m on blogging Hiatus until next week. During that time I’ll be re-posting old text of mine or guest posts.
This one was the first post I struck gold with (Sept 4th 2007). It’s as short as it was insightful and has made me known on the bloggosphere. It has since become a cornerstone of what i stand for in terms of tabletop roleplaying.
Since this text has been linked by others several times, I’m re-posting it instead of changing its publishing date.
I just found out about possibly the coolest site for failed writers (raises hand), Meta-plot analyst (raises hand… again) and just plain Story-driven entertainment junkies (Me, me, me!!!).
It’s called the TV tropes Wiki and it may very well Ruin your life. (God! I must be the billionth blogger to use that Shtick). It’s about plot devices and common tricks used in successful TV/commercials /movies.I love this as I’ve always been a great fan of discussing plots and narrative techniques in novels and TV shows.
I haven’t yet spent a lot of time on it, but I probably found one of the best rules of adventure design and DMing I’ve come across
The limit of the Willing Suspension Of Disbelief for a given element is directly proportional to its degree of coolness. Stated another way, all but the most pedantic of viewers will forgive liberties with reality so long as the result is wicked sweet and/or awesome. This applies to the audience in general, as there will naturally be a different threshold for each individual in the group.
To transpose to RPG terms: Your players will put up with almost any illogical or “wobbly” plot devices or encounter you throw at them as long as things get cool enough. Which basically makes me think that my efforts as a DM should not so much be on far-reaching World Building and tight nitpicking-proof plot lines and such.
I should go all out for encounters and role playing that will swamp my players in coolness. Think combat on ice Bridges, negotiating the release of prisoners in a flooding underground prison, hopping from floating island to pieces of flying ruins in order to catch the thieves of the Star jewel of Radnia…
Yeah, that’s the ticket!
Enjoy the site, I know I will.
Red Shirts anyone?
The Chatty DM is the "nom de plume" of gamer geek Philippe-Antoine Menard. He has been GMing various versions of D&D and other RPGs for nearly 30 years. A renowned RPG blogger, game designer and published author, he squats a corner of Critical Hits he affectionately calls "Musings of the Chatty DM." (Email Phil or follow him on Twitter.)
This is one of my all time favorite posts. Both for the picture that was chosen to represent it and for the principle that is put forth. I’ve often time sent this around work to advocate for cool ideas. Thanks for reposting it.
Captain Cursors last blog post..You Did the Wrong Thing
That is a pretty cool image!
(goes back to thinking about Avengers vs Darth Vader)
Eric Maziades last blog post..Chatty Shows Us Some [Kobold] Love (Scene 1)
That is an amazing site- I remember looking through your archives and finding this before, and still enjoy it today!
tenachs last blog post..Musings at Work: 1 Step to a Better Day
I’m happy to see that it brought back good memories.
I should have another guest post up tonight.
Looking to starting writing again!
If I recall correctly, it was this post that got me hooked on both your site and TVTropes.org.
Oh, how much time I used to waste in the real world, before I discovered TV tropes.
As I like to say, the players won’t mind a little railroading if it’s the train to Awesomeville.
@Chatty:
Looks like its the “swamp with coolness” bit that made Chris over at 6d6 fireball to disagree with RoC.
Eric Maziades last blog post..The Rules of Sharing Narrative Control (and Improv)