Power Kill

[Karmakaze]

http://johntynes.com/revland2000/rl_powerkill.html


POWER KILL is a roleplaying metagame. It is not a game unto itself---it is instead a layer of "game" that you add to whatever Normal Roleplaying Game (NRG) you are currently playing. POWER KILL has no particular rules system unto itself; just use the regular rules of the NRG you're playing as normal. POWER KILL only comes into play at the beginning and ending of each Regular Game Session (RGS).

POWER KILL works hand-in-hand with your favorite NRG. Whether you play Vampire: The Masquerade® or Advanced Dungeons & Dragons®, POWER KILL is there for you to use, seamlessly integrated with your usual play.

The intent of POWER KILL is to add an additional level of Fun And Excitement (FAE) to your NRG sessions. You'll play your NRG as always, but the addition of POWER KILL mini-sessions at the beginning and ending of your normal session will add a lot to your gaming experience. It'll give you all the entertainment you've always sought from RPGs, only now it's stripped down to the bare essentials with no distracting genres to get in the way. POWER KILL is a pure distillation of the roleplaying hobby---one hundred percent pure fun!

... (http://johntynes.com/revland2000/rl_powerkill.html)

[teh bunneh]

I wouldn't bother clicking.

Most importantly, it's a hacker site -- my virus protection lit up like a christmas tree when I tried to get to the home page.

Second off, it's bulls*** wannabe Freudian analysis of how all roleplayers must "want" to be criminals. :rolleyes:

[Trebuchet]

Second off, it's bulls*** wannabe Freudian analysis of how all roleplayers must "want" to be criminals. :rolleyes:Yes, but you are a homicidal RPG player, so you pretty much make their case. :idjit:

[Eosin]

Most importantly, it's a hacker site -- my virus protection lit up like a christmas tree when I tried to get to the home page.


Dude, it is the homepage of John Tynes.... Your virus protection must be easily offended. He is known for strong words and stunning elevator conversations but otherwise is something of a Rogue game designer of considerable reputation.

[copeab]

If I wanted to read pretentious RPG material, I'd pull out The Everlasting or Aria: Worlds.

[teh bunneh]

Dude, it is the homepage of John Tynes.... Your virus protection must be easily offended. He is known for strong words and stunning elevator conversations but otherwise is something of a Rogue game designer of considerable reputation.

Huh. Well, he does a pretty good job imitating one of those "Gamers are teh eebil/sexual deviants/social maladjusts" types. :rolleyes:



Yes, but you are a homicidal RPG player, so you pretty much make their case. :idjit:

Yeah, but I'm the exception that proves the rule! :angel:

[teh bunneh]

If I wanted to read pretentious RPG material, I'd pull out The Everlasting or Aria: Worlds.

Indeed. From the article:


Murder, theft, extortion, burglary, and other serious crimes are the bread and butter of RPG storytelling; regardless of a game's higher purpose, it still amounts to story after story that consist of nothing significant other than gross criminal behavior covered in a glossy coat of genre acceptability.

and:


Roleplaying game storytelling has used the crutch of crime fantasies since the beginning, and there is no end in sight. Layers of drama and symbolism aside, is there not something wrong with a storytelling hobby that glorifies criminal behavior as the primary protagonistic component? What is the true source of our enjoyment of this hobyy? <...> Is it the illicit thrill of engaging in criminal behavior, sanctified with a safe trapping?

Yeah, thanks Dr. Freud. Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar. :rolleyes:

[Trebuchet]

The author of the article has a very cynical view of gamers; one which leads me to suspect he's indulging in a bit of projection.

The only thing Freud's theories proved was that dear Sigmund was obsessed with sex.

[Eosin]

Condescending gamers.... Wow.

Actually, Tynes earned his fame among other things as "The Condescending Game Designer" in his 1,000 word rant about D&D Sucks, IIRC. Fairly inflammatory stuff for an X-WotC guy. He isn't out to make friends.

He has an interesting take on WOTC in a salon article. Quite eye opening.

[mirage]

Dude, it is the homepage of John Tynes.... Your virus protection must be easily offended. He is known for strong words and stunning elevator conversations but otherwise is something of a Rogue game designer of considerable reputation.

So he's a wannabe Bob Cringely.

Next.

[Ian Mackinder]

Condescending gamers.... Wow.

Actually, Tynes earned his fame among other things as "The Condescending Game Designer" in his 1,000 word rant about D&D Sucks, IIRC. Fairly inflammatory stuff for an X-WotC guy. He isn't out to make friends.

He has an interesting take on WOTC in a salon article. Quite eye opening.

Which probably says much about him in itself, never mind WOTC's alleged dirty laundry. Certainly suggests that he may be ... less than unbiased as regards WOTC and related subjects.

In general, though, sounds like this guy is, to borrow a quote, "a legend in his own mind".

[Curufea]

The actions taken by characters in NRGs would almost always be completely unacceptable in the real world;
Obviously written by someone who has never been in any game I've ever been in.

No roleplaying game currently in print encourages players to act out roles that are fully in accordance with the laws and customs of society, either those of the real world or of the fictional world that the RPG is set in.
Sorry, wrong again.

POWER KILL is meant to suggest a few answers. Or at least, to ask a few questions.
But it doesn't. Sorry. Have a cookie.

[teh bunneh]

Saddest thing is, it looks like he's trying to get a conversation going* about why and how folks roleplay, and the acceptable genre conventions of gaming. Unfortunately, the people who might be interested in such a conversation tend to not be the ones who play hack-n-slash games, and the ones who do play hack-n-slash games aren't interested in having those kinds of conversations. So he's insulting the people who he should be reaching out to, and completely missing the ones he's aiming at.





*Either that, or he's just a jackhole. ;)

[Curufea]

I'm going with option 2 on this one.

[lemming]

Here's something I found elsewhere on the site:

Puppetland (http://johntynes.com/revland2000/rl_puppetland.html)



The printed edition includes my satirical metagame essay Power Kill, also seen first here on Revland

Maybe he did mean it as a joke?

[Curufea]

Hmm, the link to the "game" is-

Power Kill
A sort of meta-game for gamers living the unexamined life.

Which leads me to believe it's a response to munchkins he's become annoyed with rather than gamers as a whole.

[Eosin]

I'll repeat just for effect.....


Condescending gamers.... Wow.

[lemming]

I'll repeat just for effect.....

Yea. That still comes thru, even when tongue in cheek. Of course, this is all around 8-10 years old.

[archermoo]

Ooh, it's rare I get to make the same commentary in two different threads.

"Yawn."

[Killer Shrike]

I don't know what you guys are whining about; I'm incorporating Power Kill into my very next RPG session! Finally something that truly speaks to my inner gamer! This Tynes guy is a veritable gaming messiah, IMNSHO. Can I get a Hallelujah and a Huzzah!?!

[Trebuchet]

I don't know what you guys are whining about; I'm incorporating Power Kill into my very next RPG session! Finally something that truly speaks to my inner gamer! This Tynes guy is a veritable gaming messiah, IMNSHO. Can I get a Hallelujah and a Huzzah!?!Your mastery of sarcasm is... impressive. :hail:

[Enforcer84]

I don't know what you guys are whining about; I'm incorporating Power Kill into my very next RPG session! Finally something that truly speaks to my inner gamer! This Tynes guy is a veritable gaming messiah, IMNSHO. Can I get a Hallelujah and a Huzzah!?!
I can give you a Huzzalujah but that's it.

[Kristopher]

I can give you a Huzzalujah but that's it.

Isn't that one of the cities the Marines had to fight through to get to Baghdad?

[Roth]

I dunno if it was a joke, or a serious poke or what... but it just gave me an idea for a campaign. It could even be a cross genre campaign at that.... hmmm.

And yes, sorry about the threadromancy.

[zornwil]

I think what's most disturbing is not the central accusations of the author but the absurdly limited thinking, which is evident in "Layers of drama and symbolism aside, is there not something wrong with a storytelling hobby that glorifies criminal behavior as the primary protagonistic component?", whereby really what the author should consider is that this is equally an indictment for modern entertainment on the whole, and further storytelling across its history. The greatest tales we could name routinely could said to "glorify criminal behavior as the primary protagonist component" through a modern (or certainly post-modern) lens, from Beowulf to Oedipus to much of the Bible.

However, that said, I think the so-called "Power Kill" game is funny for what it is, a satire, and would be a lot better without the pompous and somewhat-disconnected commentary following it.

[Desert]

This could be used as a real game and could be fun. Especially if you have a group of players who play multiple games and each likes a different kind of character.

You could have each player pick a character from an rpg character or make one (rpg character), then you could have them create a more mundane, realistic character in a modern setting (analog). The analog would have his own stats, skills and background, but thinks they are the rpg character (or if your willing, characters).

If you have a really patient group willing to focus on story and psychology/psychiatry, you could actually have them work on why they are there and how to come to terms with it not being real. The more interesting idea though would be that something happens so the care facility they are in is in trouble so the players have to use the analogs to try and stop them while thinking they are the rpg characters.

Could have some interesting results, especially if you allow them to act as though they were using meta-game thinking ("how am I suppose to take on level ten fighters if none of my spells are working?"), and there's always creativity to count ("What are you doing with that table leg?" "Table leg? This is my mighty Mjolnir. With it I shall crush you fould fiend"):thumbup:

[zornwil]

This could be used as a real game and could be fun. Especially if you have a group of players who play multiple games and each likes a different kind of character.

You could have each player pick a character from an rpg character or make one (rpg character), then you could have them create a more mundane, realistic character in a modern setting (analog). The analog would have his own stats, skills and background, but thinks they are the rpg character (or if your willing, characters).

If you have a really patient group willing to focus on story and psychology/psychiatry, you could actually have them work on why they are there and how to come to terms with it not being real. The more interesting idea though would be that something happens so the care facility they are in is in trouble so the players have to use the analogs to try and stop them while thinking they are the rpg characters.

Could have some interesting results, especially if you allow them to act as though they were using meta-game thinking ("how am I suppose to take on level ten fighters if none of my spells are working?"), and there's always creativity to count ("What are you doing with that table leg?" "Table leg? This is my mighty Mjolnir. With it I shall crush you fould fiend"):thumbup:
This is also a common trope in stories, too, from the Newhart show's closing with Bob waking up as the psychologist Bob to find all of those New England other-Bob years to be just a dream to the Buffy the Vampire Slayer where it's left uncertain at the end as to whether she's really just in an insane asylum fantasizing her life as a vampire slayer.

That could be quite interesting - maybe I'll do something like this at Go Play NW if I can get enough players and if I can figure out how this might actually work as a game. Might be hard to wrangle my players at home into that playtest! Although I might just be taken with this at the moment and not be as interested in a few days. Anyway, it's an interesting idea, at the least.

[Desert]

By the way, if someone does run it, please post some of the information about the game and such here. I for one plan on trying to do so myself, but would also quite enjoying hearing about it.