People should title their posts better...

Browsing RPG bloggers can be interesting sometimes. More often it just causes one to roll their eyes.

Like this post on Justin Achilli's blog. One would think that something titled "Realism Stinks, or What's It's all About" would have something to say about realism.

But it doesn't, or rather only says it stinks in passing. The article is really just What's It's All About, and in that respect it just trots out the rather old adage that a writer doesn't put a gun in scene 1 that isn't used someplace later.

Even here the article goes off the rails.

Why? Well, that may work for books and movies, with their very limited focus. RPGs however tend to more open in what they allow. In that line, vampires interacting with the modern world may well learn how to take advantage of the toys of the modern world. And that may include hacking computers and tricking the Army into launching an Apache Gunship attack on a rival clan.

Justin's failure here is very typical of online Theory writers- too much theory, not enough experience with how people actually play rpgs. Instead of wide open vistas, they offer limited little windows that one must squeeze through.

Oh, and they whine about realism in passing without saying anything.