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D&D's Evolution: Rulings, Rules, and "System Matters"
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<blockquote data-quote="Ovinomancer" data-source="post: 8395398" data-attributes="member: 16814"><p>There's a large disconnect between applying Free Kriegsspiel to fantasy D&D -- the nature of the authority the umpire/GM claims. In FK, the umpire's calls were respected because they had the experience. So, when they were adjudicating the play, they were bringing a direct experience with the matter to hand -- the evaluation matrix was their experience. When this concept shifts to the idea of fantasy wargaming, however, this authority is completely lost. There's little to say about how a person reacts to a threat, so you're not perpetrating the FK concepts when you say that a GM should just issue rulings as to how they think things should go. Rather, you're actually engaging in a different concept which is consensus storytelling with a non-neutral judge. Which is fine, but it has little actually in common with Free Kriegsspiel except that one person gets the say in what happens.</p><p></p><p>I'm generally non-plussed by the attempts to claim FK as top cover for justifying GM-says play. You don't need it -- if it's fun for your table, that's enough. There's no need to take a very tightly focused wargame, who's rules were what the veteran umpire said and trusted because they'd been there and seen it, and then claim that the same idea of one person having the say what happens when set in a fantastical and far more complex fictional space is the same. They have one thing in common -- one person has the say as to what happens. The differences, though, are legion. Foremost is that the players are against a scenario proposed by the one person deciding what happens vice competitors in a wargame overseen by an umpire who has no stake in who wins (or shouldn't).</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Ovinomancer, post: 8395398, member: 16814"] There's a large disconnect between applying Free Kriegsspiel to fantasy D&D -- the nature of the authority the umpire/GM claims. In FK, the umpire's calls were respected because they had the experience. So, when they were adjudicating the play, they were bringing a direct experience with the matter to hand -- the evaluation matrix was their experience. When this concept shifts to the idea of fantasy wargaming, however, this authority is completely lost. There's little to say about how a person reacts to a threat, so you're not perpetrating the FK concepts when you say that a GM should just issue rulings as to how they think things should go. Rather, you're actually engaging in a different concept which is consensus storytelling with a non-neutral judge. Which is fine, but it has little actually in common with Free Kriegsspiel except that one person gets the say in what happens. I'm generally non-plussed by the attempts to claim FK as top cover for justifying GM-says play. You don't need it -- if it's fun for your table, that's enough. There's no need to take a very tightly focused wargame, who's rules were what the veteran umpire said and trusted because they'd been there and seen it, and then claim that the same idea of one person having the say what happens when set in a fantastical and far more complex fictional space is the same. They have one thing in common -- one person has the say as to what happens. The differences, though, are legion. Foremost is that the players are against a scenario proposed by the one person deciding what happens vice competitors in a wargame overseen by an umpire who has no stake in who wins (or shouldn't). [/QUOTE]
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D&D's Evolution: Rulings, Rules, and "System Matters"
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