What Games do you think are Neotrad?

[Wolfpack48]

Most of the labels are about as useful as labels on musical genres. You can generally tell when a song (or performer) has a lot of the characteristics of a particular genre, but a lot of the interesting work is done at the margins, or explicitly hybridizes genre characteristics.

Lol, I go out of my way to relabel weird music subgenre names as "Rock."

 

[Reynard]

Lol, I go out of my way to relabel weird music subgenre names as "Rock."

A friend and I were at one of our local breweries recently and they had one of those small cover bands playing all the usual 70s-90s inoffensive rock hits. We realized there was a name for this genre: Fair Rock (as in County Fair).

 

[GobHag]

I think it would be more constructive to put the term aside for a moment and look to what the OP actually wants to achieve in play. @GobHag , what is it about OC that appeals to you?

OC is very much not Story Now, it's Story Before(Using the terms as explained here) but it's written by the players--preplanned developments or character arcs that they themselves set.

But the reason that I'm into OC is because I am an OC player; I like builds, I like having a flexible plan on how my character's story would go, I like using mechanics to interface with the world(I'm unashamedly a video gamer) and how it affects me as I play it--In other words, the blogpost was very much useful to me because it put to paper the goals and experiences that I'm after. I wouldn't be making this thread if It didn't after all.

I never really care about the world at large in campaigns really, they're importance is mostly as something that I--a player, not a dungeon master--would use. The NPCs, aesthetic, stereotypical personality trait and cultural belief the character holds/is against, 'plot hooks', enemies, etc, etc, these are what I mine from that fictional world . I don't care about verisimilitude or historical accuracy, I don't get to or even want play at the world. I play a character, and the world should facilitate in making that character cool/tragic/fun/horrifying.

Also thanks for @TwoSix for reminding me of 13th age, I should read into that more but didn't because I heard that a new edition is coming up.

 

[mamba]

Isn't the entire point of the article on six rpg philosopies that they do not apply to games but to communities or individuals?

if so, they do a pretty good job of hiding that behind naming TTRPGs as examples for the different categories...

Classic: D&D before Hickman
Trad: Hickman's D&D, CoC
Story Game: PbtA
OSR: do I even need to list one...
Neo-trad: not really a game named, but starting with D&D 3e, and Critical Role mentioned as an example

 

[GobHag]

Like I said, Fabula Ultima I think is the most obvious example of a modern game that caters to Neo-trad.

 

[gorice]

OC is very much not Story Now, it's Story Before(Using the terms as explained here) but it's written by the players--preplanned developments or character arcs that they themselves set.

But the reason that I'm into OC is because I am an OC player; I like builds, I like having a flexible plan on how my character's story would go, I like using mechanics to interface with the world(I'm unashamedly a video gamer) and how it affects me as I play it--In other words, the blogpost was very much useful to me because it put to paper the goals and experiences that I'm after. I wouldn't be making this thread if It didn't after all.

I never really care about the world at large in campaigns really, they're importance is mostly as something that I--a player, not a dungeon master--would use. The NPCs, aesthetic, stereotypical personality trait and cultural belief the character holds/is against, 'plot hooks', enemies, etc, etc, these are what I mine from that fictional world . I don't care about verisimilitude or historical accuracy, I don't get to or even want play at the world. I play a character, and the world should facilitate in making that character cool/tragic/fun/horrifying.

Also thanks for @TwoSix for reminding me of 13th age, I should read into that more but didn't because I heard that a new edition is coming up.

OK, so character-driven play, with some pre-planned events or arcs? How much of what happens is planned?

The blog post you linked (about which... the less said, the better) gives the example of Pendragon. IIRC, in Pendragon, the broad events of the campaign are fixed, but all kinds of wild things can happen to characters. Your character can fail a passion roll and be forced to do something you don't want them to. Or just get eaten by a dragon. It sounds like this isn't what people who are into OC play would want. Is that true?

I'm not very familiar with Fabula Ultima. Can you explain how the game's rules faciliate OC play for you?

Sorry if all these questions and opinions are too much.

 

[innerdude]

So, Savage Worlds can play into neotrad elements very well in some ways.

Since it's classless and skill based, you can lean into just about any core character concept.

If the players wanted to come to a shared agreement on how to use "bennies" to keep character threads intact throughout a campaign, it would work really well.

Though its magic system can feel generic RAW, it's easy to create unique spell trappings.

 

[aramis erak]

I am still confused as to whether "neo-trad" is a playstyle or a design ethos.

Design ethos, and possibly playstyle.

 

[Not a Decepticon]

if so, they do a pretty good job of hiding that behind naming TTRPGs as examples for the different categories...

Classic: D&D before Hickman
Trad: Hickman's D&D, CoC
Story Game: PbtA
OSR: do I even need to list one...
Neo-trad: not really a game named, but starting with D&D 3e, and Critical Role mentioned as an example

And you can make good argument that bunch of OSR devs would probably not appreciate being excluded from very category of games they tried to emulate. Or yu could go into honsensical minutial like "why is 3e neo-trad and not a forge game?". This system becomes utterly useless when applied to games and not people.

 

[Reynard]

Design ethos, and possibly playstyle.

So what aspects of 3E make it neo-trad as opposed to simply trad?