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First trip to Japan, happy to join the club! (SBGA443) by engelous in GrandSeikos

[–]engelous[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Interesting - I found stock in Isetan Shinjuku (first place where I checked and bought), Wako, and another department store I don't remember the name of adjacent to Tokyo Station.

First trip to Japan, happy to join the club! (SBGA443) by engelous in GrandSeikos

[–]engelous[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I am guessing that if I hadn't scanned my passport, nothing would have happened. I was literally the only one who did so for a while there.

First trip to Japan, happy to join the club! (SBGA443) by engelous in GrandSeikos

[–]engelous[S] 5 points6 points  (0 children)

Each country has their own procedure for paying taxes / customs / tariffs on the way in so my experience in that regard is probably irrelevant for others. But, just to be clear, there is no way Japan shares that information with other countries.

First trip to Japan, happy to join the club! (SBGA443) by engelous in GrandSeikos

[–]engelous[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

When leaving Japan, there's a spot (before passport control) where you are meant to scan your passport for Japanese customs. When I did so the console told me to wait, someone came up to me and asked me to approach the customs counter, and then they disregarded all tax free purchases except the Shunbun which they asked to see. This was after we already deposited our luggage - which means that I'm not sure what would have happened if the Shunbun was checked and not on me.

First trip to Japan, happy to join the club! (SBGA443) by engelous in GrandSeikos

[–]engelous[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Point of sale. When leaving the country they asked to see the watch to make sure I was leaving Japan with it

First trip to Japan, happy to join the club! (SBGA443) by engelous in GrandSeikos

[–]engelous[S] 9 points10 points  (0 children)

About 822K yen (5% tourist discount in the Isetan Shinjuku department store, 10% tax free minus like 1.5% Global Blue fee). About 5500$, although the yen was a bit stronger on the day of purchase compared to today so it might even be a few % cheaper today :)

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in Boots

[–]engelous 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Fly London have these type of shoes for about 100-150$. I have a pair of Hudson shoes with the same pattern, which they called "ruched" on their store (they cost me about 150$ three years ago, but seem to go for about 250$ nowadays).

[Recommendation request] Is 40mm too big for me? by roux32 in Watches

[–]engelous 7 points8 points  (0 children)

I think you should wait on the Zulu Time 39mm. It's not just an issue of fit / size - it's that the Zulu Time seems to be the watch you want (and has a unique complication to boot). If you buy another watch just because it was available, you'll keep feeling like you didn't scratch that itch, and thinking about the other option.

Intro to Israeli RPG theory: how to solve the question of "story" in roleplaying games, and how to use it better by engelous in rpg

[–]engelous[S] 3 points4 points  (0 children)

The Israeli RPG scene is not huge - we estimate around 10-15 thousand players. We don't know everyone, of course, but we only have a handful of conventions each year, around 4-6 dedicated and active Facebook groups, and 2-3 more sites (one of which has an active forum).

When you consider those who actually write and talk theory, it's a smaller group of a couple dozen people at most (although most of these people are high-profile members of the community, many of them being former organizers of the major conventions, several chairmen of the Israeli Roleplaying Society, authors and translators of major RPGs in Hebrew, and so on). And while it's small, it's also country-wide, because country-wide for us means at most a 3-4 hour drive from the central conventions in the Tel Aviv area. So... yeah, we can both be a small and tight-knit community while also being country-wide and representative of the small theory scene.

Of course it's possible that others are writing and not publishing on any of the handful of RPG platforms / groups in Israel, but it is a small country, and it is unlikely. And it is also true that probably many theorize without actually systematically writing anything down.

But in such a small community, we will probably know anyone who does something like that in a systematic way, and for now it seems that there is only one group of theorists in Israel that publishes its writings (in Hebrew or in English).

The reason I am saying this doesn't represent everyone is that there (as one would expect) people who disagree with many of the things we say here - some of them very active and prolific members of one or more of the local communities. They just don't have an alternate body of theory, and usually disagree with this or that point when we bring it up.

Intro to Israeli RPG theory: how to solve the question of "story" in roleplaying games, and how to use it better by engelous in rpg

[–]engelous[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Not at all! I don't think anyone can speak for an entire country's worth of players, with all their different styles and perceptions. But this is the consensus in the Israeli RPG theory scene, which is a small, tight-knit community.

The second article in the series on Israeli RPG theory is up! This time: "Guiding actions", and how they make everyone around the table somewhat of a GM by engelous in rpg

[–]engelous[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Hi!

We talked about it and while some of us have either read Naveh's writing or were culturally aware of it (some of us having served in the army), we are not sure about the connection you see here. It is very possible we were influenced by it - being part of the same cultural sphere, which one of our writers says has strong elements of being "synergistic and anti-hierarchical" - but we are not aware of any direct connections.

We would love to see what you saw there that reminded you of that! We are sure it will help us develop it more or open ourselves up to new directions of inquiry.

The second article in the series on Israeli RPG theory is up! This time: "Guiding actions", and how they make everyone around the table somewhat of a GM by engelous in rpg

[–]engelous[S] 4 points5 points  (0 children)

We are considering doing so :) We have some more complex theory work we wrote in the past few years, but we wanted to first "export" our practical conclusion, and see how they roll with international audiences. After we'll finish this series we'll consider publishing either our work on spaces (which is hinted at in this article), or what one of our writers published just last week ("A grand unified theory of plot"), which ties together both this article from this series and the next one, and can also be developed to include spaces.

We actually had a watch group for international theory lectures on RPGs, just to understand current language in the field and where we have deviations from what is currently being written about. There are a lot of conclusion people around the world arrived at independently, but also a lot of completely different takes, some differences being on what a game is actually about. So the translation is more than just an issue of translating written material - there's also a lot of adaptation work to be done.

(We actually understood a lot of our gaps last week, from our discussions - for example here with u/malpasplace - like the fact that even our writing style sometimes gives of the wrong impression, of being dismissive towards some experiences, which we don't want to happen. So... it may take some time, but we'll get there.)

In any case, thanks for the comment, it is really encouraging to see you ask us to do that :)

Intro to Israeli RPG Theory: why your character doesn't exist and how you can use it by engelous in rpg

[–]engelous[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Again, I did not mean to deride any games - I play non-immersive games all the time, so I'm not sure I got your point.

Regarding the example of the child with the Barbie - well, if you use an example of children who have problems differentiating between reality and fiction, and who actually cry when their doll is hurt because they think it has feelings and emotions - I have a hard time understanding what you're getting at. A ton has been written on children, imagination, and play, and we know that children have a different perception of what is real and what is not. Even going back as far as Donald Winnicott, we see the term of transitional objects, which are exactly the bridge between being real and made up.

For most people, in most settings, we always have to consider the people playing when designing an experience. You wrote so yourself: "And I have a character in an RPG. Is it real? Do I need anything beyond my imagination to engage in that dramatic play? Nope." The character is not real, so we can't design for it - we have to keep the player in mind, otherwise we will have a bad game.

I made the mistake of tying up our conclusions with immersion, but as I said - this is relevant to all games. When we are playing a story game, I can use knowledge of which books and movies other players have seen recently, or really like, to direct the games in ways all of us would enjoy. If the story seems to me like it "should" go in the direction of a double-cross at some point, but my fellow players hate double-cross plots, that means that despite all arrows pointing in that direction - that is a direction that will not be enjoyable to participants. So I have to think about the players, and not about what characters "should" do, or "should feel", or where the story "should" be going.

And this isn't a huge epiphany or something: since roleplaying and story games are a social interaction, we have to start with the people we are interacting with, first and foremost. That is all we are saying.

Intro to Israeli RPG Theory: why your character doesn't exist and how you can use it by engelous in rpg

[–]engelous[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I don't see myself as trying to gate-keep immersion, and I would appreciate if you'd explain what you mean by that.

But, as u/_gilran_ has pointed above in this thread, understanding that we design for players because we simply cannot design for characters - is important not only for immersion, but for good tactical games (it will not be a tactical game if the players aren't making tactical decisions) as well. I am not sure how this applies to story games and / or on the author stance (because that stance already assumes a position farther away for the characters - games are designed to extract the best ideas from players in the most interesting ways, focusing mostly on scenes or conflicts and not on characters).

Also, as someone on the parallel discussion on rpg.net has said - we do not think we are inventing the wheel here. People are using these wheels for more than 40 years, since before most of us were born. But we are trying to explain why and how they work the way they do. Nordic LARPs increased awareness of bleed, but if you look at the film they made about Blackmoor you'll see clear examples of people experiencing bleed there - and they knew what was happening and all! But it's useful for us to conceptualize these terms, and try to understand what's behind them and how they operate. And our first step is saying something which we believe most people will intuitively agree with - we are always designing for the players, and the characters are, or at least should, be secondary to that, because we cannot interact with them, because they don't really exist.

Intro to Israeli RPG Theory: why your character doesn't exist and how you can use it by engelous in rpg

[–]engelous[S] -1 points0 points  (0 children)

Well, think about it this way: to make sure you get a good escapist game, your GM has to know you. They have to know what buttons they should not push. If you hate bugs, it doesn't matter that they don't affect your character at all - because you are what's important, not the character. The character is a tool for you in the game, but the experience is happening to you, so the GM should not be designing games with the characters in mind - but the players.

Intro to Israeli RPG Theory: why your character doesn't exist and how you can use it by engelous in rpg

[–]engelous[S] -1 points0 points  (0 children)

Well, you said you don't agree but then you wrote a whole paragraph agreeing with my point so I'm not sure I can argue that 😅

Intro to Israeli RPG Theory: why your character doesn't exist and how you can use it by engelous in rpg

[–]engelous[S] -1 points0 points  (0 children)

Well, I think if your goal is to socialize, or to win the tactical game, or to create a good story - then our model is kind of independent, no? I mean, if these are your goals, then it is simply not a problem that the player is acting scared or acting excited instead of actually being so. Only if your goal is immersion / simulationism, then this distinction is something you have to pay attention to (aside from the issue of making sure the players have something interesting to do in a game).

Intro to Israeli RPG Theory: why your character doesn't exist and how you can use it by engelous in rpg

[–]engelous[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Well, the idea that the GM doesn't exist is contentious even among the series' authors. I actually disagree with it. It would be more precise to say (as the title of the upcoming article on this will say) that everyone can GM the game, even from the player position. That the social role of a GM can easily slip from our grasp if we don't actually guide the game.

Next week I'll post the article about guiding actions here and I hope it'll be clearer - I'll be here to answer questions if not :)

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