I keep reading one or another form of “regulated capitalism is the goal” or “in small countries work” or “the problem is people”. Regulated capitalism sounds great, but it is like saying “sanitised street pond”. You can try and sanitise it all you want but in the end it is by its very design gonna be an undrinkable mess.

There is no great moment of the US. Even when you had wealth, it was on the backs of the rest of america, both the country’s second class citizens, and the rest of the continent. You’re obsessed with empires, meddling in other countries’ governments, controlling resources in other countries, glorified violence, dominance, and individualist hero idealism. Even compared to other powers like China, count how many military bases you have vs the rest of the world. You’ve been historically bullies, obsessed with hustle, profit over life, status and personal achievement. Every time you have an increase of wealth is at the cost of someone else. The problem is you have lived so long in this bubble of entitlement that you have no idea how it impacts everything around you. Somewhere there’s a totalitarian regime where they’ll murder people with guillotines, and people will rush to buy stocks in companies selling sharp blades. There is no ethic in capitalism, capitalism does not care about people.

Wish I could upvote your comment more than once. Clear as it can be. 👌🏼

Unpopular opinion maybe, but the take on being “I made a thing” narrator and a “I’ll break your thing” player feels like missing the point to me. I mean, you can build that dynamic and have fun if that’s what you’re into, but it is still collaborative, just that the narrator pretends to be challenged. In most ttrpgs, the narrator has almost complete control over the game. You can try to “compete” but it is never a real match, as the narrator can make your character/s disappear in an instant if she/he/they want. So this supposed pissing contest is really more like a dad playing pretend like he got bested by his kids in a fight. Which shows that this was never the point.

What to me really makes it work is setting up scenarios with a lot of input from the players and seeing the game unfold wherever they might take it. The narrator is given that power precisely because it should try to avoid controlling the story as much as it can, and instead interpret the world around the players (as if the world is the character the narrator controls) to develop surprising and captivating situations and events that play off of everyone at the table.

Also related, “Dungeon master” sounds outdated, as it points to a person that controls a 1 vs many boardgames like Descent, Mansions of Madness or Imperial Assault. Which is why the collaborative storytelling is, to me, what sets it apart from other games. One can definitely have competitive storytelling (Everyone is John), but lets not kid ourselves thinking that’s what goes on in most ttrpg games being played.

Would love to see more Legend of the Five Rings (L5R) or World/Chronicles of Darkness (CoD) love around. I think CoD has one of the best systems out there to play modern and contemporary settings imo. Also, long live Mage (MtA)!