Grinding In An RP Enforced Game - Or: How I Stopped Worrying And Learned To Accept The Grind

[Lysse]

This post is inspired by some backlog chatter I read on the game chat this morning - it felt a bit weird to respond to something that happened 10+ hours ago, especially since I had a bit of a wordy reply rolling around in my head. The conversation revolved around the believability of having to raise up skills through repetitious actions that are beyond reasonable for any human to do (in particular, playing a woodscrafty character who hunts but is respectful of nature).

As someone playing a Dunwyr, I 100% understand the qualms someone would have when trying to train up a skill like skinning, or leatherworking - the idea that you have to slaughter scores and scores of animals just to get your leatherworking up high enough to produce not-awful items doesn't feel good, and frankly it's something I took to heart when I first started playing Lysse. She spent most of her career not wearing armor because I didn't want to grind up leatherworking, and in Clok that was fine to do, in terms of tactics. But the combat system for Cogg (as much as I prefer it over Clok's) is just more punishing and brutal for anyone not wearing armor, so that's not something you can as easily dismiss this go around. To say nothing of the people who want to play just like, a normal woodsman that isn't a radical eco warrior.

I've played a lot of games since I first played Lysse, and all of them have been a little different. But the thing I've learned to carry with me from game to game (whether it's a video game or a tabletop RPG frankly) is that you can't let the reality of interacting with a system of mechanics interfere with the fun you're trying to have in the game you're playing, because ostensibly that's why anyone is here - to have fun.

I don't often like to compare the mudding hobby to tabletop gaming because it's not really a great 1 for 1 comparison, but there's lessons that I've learned playing both that apply to the other, and chief amongst them is: different games are designed in different ways to create different experiences, and that's not only okay but something to be celebrated.

But it's also something to be mindful of as we play different games, so that we don't bring baggage from one game to another - not only to be mindful of the spaces we're in, but also so we don't ruin our own fun, and create obstacles that are frustrating (and not satisfying) to overcome.

Clok (and even Cogg) aren't RPI experiences, by design. But I think for many people (myself included) who are playing games like this primarily for the Cool Story Stuff, there can be a tendency to treat all roleplaying experiences like they're intensive, immersive narrative games. There isn't anything really wrong with that, if that's how you enjoy doing things! But it can also generate stress for someone, which can hamper their ability to actually enjoy the game they're playing.



I say all of this long, rambling, winding stuff as a preamble, so that I can say what I really want to. Which is: you should play roleplaying games to have fun and enjoy yourself, without worrying too much about self-imposted limitations in the name of "better RP". If I go into a game of Dungeons and Dragons and expect it to play out like it's a game of World of Darkness, I'm going to probably have a pretty subpar, unfun time of it. If I go into a diceless narrative game and try to treat it like a dungeoncrawl in Dungeons and Dragons, I probably won't be having much fun. Or if I spin up Lord of the Rings Online and expect to get the same RP experience I would have on a collaborative storytelling MUSH. So on and so forth.

And I think we should treat MUDs the same way. I hate the grind on clok as much as the next person might, but the reality of the situation is: even if the grind gets lessened, it's still part of the game. If you want to be an excellent swordsman, you have to slay thousands of being. If you want to be a masterful blacksmith, you have to forge thousands of items. If you want to be even an average woodsman, you have to slay scores and scores of animals. And I think when we accept that as a normalized facet of the game (without ICly harping or focusing on it), it can drastically improve our experiences.

Lysse still won't be happy finding loggers cutting down trees, or furriers/trappers hunting for profit, but that's not a reaction to the "unrealistic" amount of times our characters have to do repetitive actions - that's just part of her M.O. as a Dunwyr, the same way I would expect people to be upset with Lysse if I had an area of Western Coalition loggers or mercenaries to practice her combat skills on.

I've been there as the person playing this game, stressing over whether or not me crafting three hundred loin cloths makes me a "bad" Dunwyr player, and the net result of that is going to be that I'm going to have a much harder, slower time of things when leatherworking is released, because I'll have a grind that I could have already done. So don't be like Past Lysse, and preemptively ruin your own fun in the game.

As long as we're playing the game to have our own fun, without making it miserable for other people to play, or disrespecting the theme of the game, that's all that really matters. Do what's fun for you to do, be mindful of other's people fun and the policies, and remember that at the end of the day it's just a game, and we should be playing games to have fun. But also remember that it's okay to play different games in different ways. :)