I'm used to "play to lose" being more of an actively pursuing tragedy or other narratively-satisfying negative-for-your-character outcome, and "play to roleplay" doing what you frame as in-character for your PC regardless of whether it leads to good or bad outcomes as a different thing. But I guess this framing of "play to lose" really only makes sense in games that have meaningful support for that sort of play, not games focused on tactical combat minigames or whatever.
I think many ttrpgs being fundamentally collaborative makes things different from sports or a most board games. I think that leads to fewer people being "sore losers" per se in that someone's loss isn't someone else's win and so you're not ruining someone else's moment if you're unhappy with dying most of the time. PvP LARPs definitely have more of a dynamic about people being sore losers and that causing problems, in my experience.
It's perhaps worth noting that some ttrpgs where death is expected, that's not a game-ending state, because you're expected to make a new character or similar, so it's different than loss in another type of game might be.
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mmmag
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Date: 2025-03-14 03:28 pm (UTC)I think many ttrpgs being fundamentally collaborative makes things different from sports or a most board games. I think that leads to fewer people being "sore losers" per se in that someone's loss isn't someone else's win and so you're not ruining someone else's moment if you're unhappy with dying most of the time. PvP LARPs definitely have more of a dynamic about people being sore losers and that causing problems, in my experience.
It's perhaps worth noting that some ttrpgs where death is expected, that's not a game-ending state, because you're expected to make a new character or similar, so it's different than loss in another type of game might be.