Do you ever play? Why, think long and hard about the answer, just why?
Learning about what you enjoy and why you enjoy it is enjoyable in of itself.
>>46518352
I enjoy the contrast between expectation, desire and outcome. I'm essentially in it to hypothesize about different worlds, different peoples and how such things could interact. The inevitable ironies that naturally emerge from such an exercise are a bonus.
None of my friends appreciate these things as I do, sadly, and for them it's either about passively participating in a story led by someone else, focusing on the fairy tale aspects, or just plain old escapism.
The only other person I know who plays for similar reasons prefers to act out and express a theme or overall aesthetic with singular exactness, effectively using the game to create a logical progression on one point. Where as I prefer to see what comes about naturally from the perceived, despite the active role necessary to truly strive for purpose in the ambiguity.
>>46518352
I like fantasy. The time and tech level are somewhat irrelevant; I can enjoy a medieval-style D&D fantasy world as easily as I can a setting full of cyborg wizards and technobarbarians. To top it off, I like cooperative games, I like character dramas, and I like imagining how worlds work when they have different sapient races, various monstrous creatures, and supernatural forces and sciences to work with. RPGs have a way of providing all of these at once, so long as you have a handful of like-minded compatriots.
>>46519116
Oh, and one thing I didn't think to add in before I posted. I like that in an RPG, there's not really a definitive win/lose aside from "everyone enjoyed themselves".
I like that I can sacrifice my character to save his friends if it's something in his character to do and would be a good element of storytelling to include in that particular segment of the game, and that instead of getting a Game Over or whatever, the story continues and that character becomes resolved in a way. I like that a TPK can become the journal of horrific tales our second party finds amongst the bones of some strangers they found in a ruin somewhere. I like how if you fail to save the world from a conquering lich, you can play a game set a few decades later about some hardened survivors questing to take it back.
That kind of open-ended lack of finality is nice.
>>46518352
Is that women Ayn Rand?
For me, the semi-random actions of the players create a tumult of unpredictable yet emergent outcomes that can be much more satisfying entertainment than any movie or novel, the latter of which by the nature of their teleological medium are far more structured and static.
tl;dr RPGs be more crazy, yo.
>>46519909
its simone de beauvoir iirc
>>46519909
Nah, but she does appear in some of these.
>>46518352
Yes.
Stat bonuses.
>>46520392
How does she even qualify as a philosopher?
>>46522125
Only sorta, they basically covered that in another comic.
>>46522125
About as much as she qualifies as a human being.
>>46522125
>>46522248
This comic has freaking Marx as anything but a chaotic evil barbarian. Your arguments are invalid.
>>46520392
That is fantastic. And moderately accurate.
>>46520392
>Rand
>Good
how in the fuck
>>46522748
Would she be LN? Or LE? Actually fuck that can of worms and alignments in general
>>46522820
Obviously she would be Chaotic Neutral
>>46522125
How does Marx?
>>46522363
>Marx
>Good
>Monk
>Lived his entire life like an aristocratic dilettante with his daddy's stock investments paying for his lifestyle
More like a rich prince's bard
>>46522363
Shush, /pol/. Adults are talking.
>>46522901
Not that guy, but you're more likely to be a college student who still thinks that Noam Chomsky is a "leading US dissident".
So not adults at all.
>>46522968
There are a lot of valid criticisms of Marx, but depicting him as a chaotic evil barbarian is innaccurate and simply comes from a desire to think of a way to say "he's really bad and I don't like him" without actually saying what's wrong with his ideas.
>>46518352
Because I hate myself and want to experience yet another group collapsing after three sessions.
>>46522968
See >>46523018. There's a lot you can criticize about the man's work, but "hurr he evil bad man" is lazy.
For schools of economic thought I lean Hayek and Keynes, to be honest. Not sure what Chomsky has to do with anything besides being the first liberal boogeyman you could think of.
>>46518352
Because playing is a natural activity for, as far as I'm aware, at least all mammalian life.
Depending on the game, it's a way to engage various mental and physical faculties in low-risk environments, either as preparation or training, or simply to maintain ability in those faculties.
Personally, I play RPGs because I enjoy the consumption of narratives, as well as shared storytelling. I play board games because of a similar reason: each game experience is a narrative, in a way that Camus refers to in your comic. Yes, my control of said narrative is variable, depending on the game, but in the majority of games, I do have at least mild ability to shape the game to my preferences. Further, I'm fine with accepting personal definitions of success over the one proscribed by the game. (Deciding in a video game where my team is losing that "as long as I deal more damage than PLAYER X", I'll count it as a personal victory, for example. Or, in a more /tg/ example: Building not simply the longest road in Catan, but literally dividing the board in half. )
>>46522125
She founded Objectivism. We don't have to agree with the precepts of a philosophy to acknowledge its existence. It IS a philosophy, if one widely considered inherently flawed.
>>46522363
Come now, Marx's entire schtick was a more even distribution of resources, which is a Lawful goal, but he believed that the only way to achieve those means was a political overthrow of the bourgeoisie either throw legitimate or violent means, which is fairly Chaotic. Hence Neutral is a perfectly acceptable ethical alignment position.
Of course, the real issue here is that alignments and philosophy go together like heaps of oily rags and extended lack of oversight: they will almost inevitably combust, likely taking whatever structure they were in with them.
>>46523492
I founded pierogism, a philosophy that revolves around the idea that we are all pierogi.
Am I a philosopher?
>>46523693
Sure, write several non-fiction essays and treatises on its precepts, moral messages, and/or theories of reality, have it adopted and supported by at least one mainstream movement, and have it discussed by academics, and you're in.
Heck, I'll help.
Clearly, the pierogism is a controversial position, arguing that humankind is made of a differing substance within than what it presents without, both of which are the products of our creative and shaping forces. However, the inherent moral blame for our actions must similarly lie with said forces. We are merely consumable objects to the great maw and hands of society, produced by parents, schools, and media socialization to fill a purpose, produce value, and then be converted to waste.
One of the fundamental aspects of pierogism is the idea of hidden interior. Only in times of great stress or change, do we see what truly fills our fellow man. We may assume our friend to be a stalwart 4 Cheese, but in the moment of trial, he reveals himself to be Cheddar and Onion. Further, man is inherently unknowable to himself, his own depths as opaque to his reasoning as to his compatriots. The only exclusion to this is in "damaging" events. Once the interior has been exposed, the knowledge of it is impossible to avoid, at least to the outside observer.
So a man may be well-made, or rotten, but it is the fault not of himself, but of the people and forces that created him. As such, we can propose that schools and neighborhoods have to pay at least some of the restitution and burden, and accept some of the guilt, for "rotten" pierogi they have made.
>>46520392
Second part.Notice how Rand's character is much prettier than she is.
>>46520392
>Ayn Rand
>Chaotic Good
>Not Lawful Evil
okaythen.jpg
>>46518352
I enjoy telling stories and creating things.
Tabletop is a way to create things and tell stories with a group of other people, and it creates a storyline that is, in its own way, multitudes more rich and authentic than something you crank out yourself on a word document.
>>46520392
>>46524323
Beauvoir best girl. Nietzsche a close second.Rand third.
>>46525351
My personal favorite is the fury of the workers, Marx.
>>46525351
>not Camus and Sartre
>>46524082
I'm gonna have to stop you and say that no, that doesn't make you a philosopher, that makes you a drug addict.
>>46527555
Difference being?
>>46524323
I like how Marx is pantsless.
>>46528029
me too, I'm just glad I'm not the only guy to notice it.
>>46522748
>>46525173
Because of course Rand would put Lawful Good on her character sheet, because she lacks self-awareness.
>>46529306
Er, Chaotic Good.
The point is, only Stirner put evil because Stirner is a fucking edgelord.
>>46529336
>edge lord
Not an argument, but it is a spook.
>>46527730
Touche'.
>>46519008
I want to make love with Cestree!
I like the ability to create monsters and situations and atmosphere and whole worlds for my friends....this sometimes comes across as cruelty, but I'm more than fair to them.
And it's fun doing imaginative shit like this with friends. It's much better than watching a movie.
>>46520392
Marx STFU they made the weapons specifically to sell.
>>46534388
>implying
>cuban blacksmiths are ever paid
>or soviet collective farmers
Anon, do you even socialism?
"It is better to not even to begin playing D&D than it is to play as a bard."
