TURNS: Dimension 20 Fantasy High Junior Year: The Last Stand: 1:56:14
The group is engaged in a “final exam” battle with waves of emerging monsters in an arena. The cleric meant to revive them if they die in the exam, Buddy, has just been unexpectedly slaughtered by two other students who rapidly teleported away. The group is still fighting the last wave of monsters in this moment.
DM: Two hoof attacks from pentacorn, both miss
Hits with a horn attack
Fig takes 15 pts radiant damage
End of pentacorn turn, now the purple worm
Rights itself
Has forgotten to kill proctor, is going to try to kill Gorgug
Gorgug: Uses hologram displacement to confer disadvantage, which means straight roll for worm cause it is rolling with advantage
Hits on a 2 or higher, rolls a 6
Tail stinger -> 23 piercing damage, halved to 11
Next thing is a critical hit.
Gorgug rolls a con save, fails
Takes 43 poison damage.
Next is crit on a bite attack
Halved damage, Gorgug takes 19 piercing damage
Box of doom dexterity save from Gorgug
Rolls with advantage, needs over a 15 to succeed, rolls a 14. Uses a bardic to gain 2 pts, pushing him over the save.
Gorgug is NOT swallowed whole by the purple worm!
Gorgug is at 16 hit points, singlehandedly holding the purple worm!
Umberhulk: Pops up on tower near exam proctor, still blinded from dust in previous turn
Riz has a readied attack action to shoot the monster, rolls a 27 to hit, succeeds.
Rolls 31 damage.
The Umberhulk had 30 hit points. It is dead.
DM describes it as “out of an old Western” as Riz shoots the monster and it goes flailing off the back of the tower and dies. (End 2:01:30)
Complexity of players interacting vs. characters interacting. Play space is both the table/orb that the players are in AND the battle board presenting the arena/monsters. Space of possibility shifts fluidly as players joke together out of character but also role play as their characters. Players use the DM to define the space of possibility (“Can I…?” “Am I close enough to…?”) and to keep track of turns and what is happening. Space of possibility is also regulated by/limited by rolls. Play is simulating a “simultaneous” battle scenario/a non-turn environment even though it has been artificially segmented into turns.
NO TURNS: World Chase Tag, 2021 ESPN 4:17
White Uniform: Jumps over obstacle, HUGE two-footed hop over a block on the floor
Black Uniform: Simultaneously skating around/under the obstacles along the side, aiming for the other side of the arena
White Uniform: Catches up just as Black Uniform reaches the border of the arena and tags just as time runs out
Both players high five and hug as the announcer calls the end.
I’ve never watched this sport before and apparently matches are quite brief (10 sec)? Commentators also have names for each obstacle (eg, “steps through the ‘Lazy Boy’ and makes the tag”). Shown on ESPN, serious take on a classic playground game.
Play space is highly defined as the square in which game plays out, but different obstacles draw attention through the space as players move through them. The space of possibility includes everything in the square and all ways to move through the obstacles. Boundaries being defined in the space is very important, as the fluidity and extreme speed of play keep the action very dynamic (it would be hard to keep track of what is “game” and “not game” with no out of bounds, and the chased would be very difficult to catch on an infinite field). Interesting to compare this to the far-less-defined playground tag. The definition of very clear rules and a very clear play space seems to reign in the space of possibility for players and viewers, allowing for more serious consideration and discussion. This seems to be important to the definition of a “sport” vs. a casual game. “Sports” have tightly regulated spaces of possibility that allow for serious consideration of rule-breaking and more intense competition. Thus, chess or basketball can be played as a sport, but playground tag must receive additional definition & boundaries before qualifying.
