Tag: Jason Cordova

A discussion thread . . . 

Is fun enough?

The argument was made to me recently that a game’s mechanics are secondary to whether or not you are having fun. It goes something like this: so long as everyone enjoyed themselves, it doesn’t matter if the game’s mechanics were a little sloppy, or if the game didn’t introduce something new to the equation. 

Long-time listeners of the podcast will already know my response to this (see: my experiences with the Pathfinder Adventure Card Game). But I responded in this particular instance in a way that was a little more thoughtful than I ever have on the cast:  

“I guess I just view fun as table stakes. Fun should be a given. All of my players could probably gather at my house to play Mario Kart for three hours, too, and we would have just as much fun as we do when we play RPGs. And yet we don’t do that. We play RPGs. In fact, there’s probably a reason we choose RPGs over Mario Kart, despite the fact they are probably equally fun. Within that whole range of reasons, for me (and for a fair number of players, I suspect) is an appreciation for rules; an appreciation for the creative process of the designer; the fun of seeing how a specific story idea can be translated into unique mechanics; comparing a designer’s later work to their earlier work; and so forth.”

Thoughts? Am I way off-base here? Is fun the only thing that matters?

Witness him!

Today we say goodbye to David LaFreniere. Let’s celebrate his legacy with these goofy photos.

Every now and then, I have the idea of running a regular online game. Before the podcast, it was a difficult thing to make happen, because most of our membership was based in Houston, and the FTF Houston games were a more desirable way to spend their gaming time. 

But now, because of the podcast, we have more out-of-state membership. I’d like to hear from those people specifically. If the Gauntlet organized a regular online game (say, bi-weekly) is that something you would be interested in? 

Some pics from gaming this week. On Wednesday, we played Grant Howitt’s Regency Ladies. We had a couple of small issues with it, but it was otherwise great fun. On Friday, we continued our dual campaigns of Dungeon World in the Red & Pleasant Land setting. For Sunday, we played Chuck Eat Cheese, my hack of Dog Eat Dog that takes place in a pizza arcade. I think it went pretty well. 

We’ll discuss all these games on Friday’s podcast, but if you have any questions in the meantime, post them in the comments. Thanks to everyone who came out: Daniel Lewis Kristen D Ferrell Riley Scott Owen Russell Benner Jorge Salazar Kyle Kowalski Stephanie Marcus Centurian Daniel Fowler Jeff Burke David LaFreniere and Steve Mains.