Is there a Difference between U.S. and U.K. Players and GMs?

[Erland Hakon]

EDIT: Mods, can we please lock down this thread?

Maybe you're not interested in the thread, but perhaps others are interested in participating.

Please, do not force others to stop participating.

[zedturtle]

I think that, since the last several posts have agreed that stereotypes have very limited use in predicting what will happen at actual game tables, that if we simply talk about different things (in different threads) then it's quite likely that this thread will die a natural death.

[[ Says the guy who posted in this thread... a real catch-22. ]]

[uhu79]

I quite like the idea that "big cultural narratives" influence the gaming behaviour of people. I also believe that the generation you belong to has an impact. As European and as an Austrian working in an global environment every day I certainly see a lot of cultural differences.

If we were to talk about British humour vs. U.S. humour, would anyone disagree that significant differences exist?

Why can't people discuss about British RPG-style vs. U.S.-style with all the caution necessary not to descend into animosities.

[T.S. Luikart]

This thread broaches a potentially difficult subject, one that people (clearly) tend to get defensive about. I think it has value, so long as everybody is respectful. I will be keeping a close eye on it.

For the record - Robin is Canadian and actually has a fairly staggering amount of practical experience in the generalities of American and British "play styles" - though he would (as I do) assure you that the "broad trends" tend to come up far more at conventions than in individual games. I have seen the trends he mentions myself, many, many times.

[Rich H]

.... the "broad trends" tend to come up far more at conventions than in individual games. I have seen the trends he mentions myself, many, many times.

I think that's a very critical point to make. Convention games are largely very different to regular gaming groups due to the dynamics at play - strangers at the table, trying out the system, short timescale, etc.

[Dalriada]

If we were to talk about British humour vs. U.S. humour, would anyone disagree that significant differences exist?

Why can't people discuss about British RPG-style vs. U.S.-style with all the caution necessary not to descend into animosities.

It makes sense to consider humour as a partly national caracteristic, because the main media of humour are "real-life" shows and TV (also movies and books, but in my opinion it's less prevalent). So people of the same countries, being exposed to the same humourists, will share similarities in their sense of humour (and of course it loops).
Even then, you will have significant differences between big cities/countryside for example (or left-wing/right wing or others). But still, you can try to paint the nations with a very broad brush.

With RPG, it's more complicated. You have the same books for everybody and you don't have any other common medium for a country (very few RPGs on TV. And when you have one, it's a cliché more than a real game).
So I think that the practice of RPG may be much more heterogeneous inside a country and that the factors dividing players are more difficult to identify. Because people often play in a fixed group or in a club and the communication of "play styles" between groups is really difficult (and, as said above, convention games are a bat way to measure it, because it's looking for the least common denominator, so that everybody can enjoy the game).

[uhu79]

I agree that it's not easy to talk about this matter. It's complicated, and tendentious.

I have spent a year in Wales in my youth, where there is Dragons on flags, buildings a 1.000 years old and everywhere you go in Wales someone will point out a hill, church or a standing stone that has a story of its own.

I am wondering. Does that make fantasy-/medieval-based RPG a more true-to-life experience for gamers from such places? Does that create more grim and gritty low fantasy?
And what does the complete absence of such history do to your imagination and gaming style? If you draw everything from 2nd hand sensation (book, image, movie), does that create more powerful high fantasy?

Again, that's general statements, just subconscious maybe and certainly - if true at all - not true person per person. Actually, I believe that people from a tiny village in U.K. could imagine the vastness of the U.S. plains with a bigger longing and sense of wonder than most Americans and vice versa. U.S. players could immerse even more into a medieval world as it's not even remotely related to anything right in front of their doorsteps...

And it's not about a quality effect on your gaming!

I just believe that there are many differences and factors that can lead to gaming styles evolving one way or the other. Geography and culture being just one.

[Erland Hakon]

I think what you say is correct but with a little different nuance, for me the point is not "players could immerse even more into a medieval world" but "players could immerse into a medieval world with a different level of voluntary suspension of disbelief"... and this is what can result in different styles of play.

[uhu79]

Yeah, I like the nuance you added there!

[Stormcrow]

Why do people keep saying "medieval"? Middle-earth does not seem medieval to me. Its technology, politics, and social orders seem much more like classical antiquity, except for the Shire and Bree which resemble 19th century England.