Menu
News
All News
Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
Pathfinder
Starfinder
Warhammer
2d20 System
Year Zero Engine
Industry News
Reviews
Dragon Reflections
Columns
Weekly Digests
Weekly News Digest
Freebies, Sales & Bundles
RPG Print News
RPG Crowdfunding News
Game Content
ENterplanetary DimENsions
Mythological Figures
Opinion
Worlds of Design
Peregrine's Next
RPG Evolution
Other Columns
From the Freelancing Frontline
Monster ENcyclopedia
WotC/TSR Alumni Look Back
4 Hours w/RSD (Ryan Dancey)
The Road to 3E (Jonathan Tweet)
Greenwood's Realms (Ed Greenwood)
Drawmij's TSR (Jim Ward)
Community
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Resources
Wiki
Pages
Latest activity
Media
New media
New comments
Search media
Downloads
Latest reviews
Search resources
EN Publishing
Store
EN5ider
Adventures in ZEITGEIST
Awfully Cheerful Engine
What's OLD is NEW
Judge Dredd & The Worlds Of 2000AD
War of the Burning Sky
Level Up: Advanced 5E
Events & Releases
Upcoming Events
Private Events
Featured Events
Socials!
Twitch
YouTube
Facebook (EN Publishing)
Facebook (EN World)
Twitter
Instagram
TikTok
Podcast
Features
Top 5 RPGs Compiled Charts 2004-Present
Adventure Game Industry Market Research Summary (RPGs) V1.0
Ryan Dancey: Acquiring TSR
Q&A With Gary Gygax
D&D Rules FAQs
TSR, WotC, & Paizo: A Comparative History
D&D Pronunciation Guide
Million Dollar TTRPG Kickstarters
Tabletop RPG Podcast Hall of Fame
Eric Noah's Unofficial D&D 3rd Edition News
D&D in the Mainstream
D&D & RPG History
About Morrus
Log in
Register
What's new
Search
Search
Search titles only
By:
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Menu
Log in
Register
Install the app
Install
The
VOIDRUNNER'S CODEX
is LIVE! Explore new worlds, fight oppressive empires, fend off fearsome aliens, and wield deadly psionics with this comprehensive boxed set expansion for 5E and A5E!
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*TTRPGs General
Judgement calls vs "railroading"
JavaScript is disabled. For a better experience, please enable JavaScript in your browser before proceeding.
You are using an out of date browser. It may not display this or other websites correctly.
You should upgrade or use an
alternative browser
.
Reply to thread
Message
<blockquote data-quote="Campbell" data-source="post: 7059261" data-attributes="member: 16586"><p>Let's talk about the style of GMing that Apocalypse World formalized, but didn't like invent from whole cloth. It basically arises from what happens when you are playing a role playing game in a typical dungeon crawling fashion, but your players are not really interested in any of your dungeons. Now the town and its surrounding environs are loosely detailed because the dungeons are the point right? Your players though, they would rather spend time in town and they have plans. They want to get their protagonist on. You could totally insist they get over themselves and go to a dungeon, but that is not the game they want to be playing. So what do you do? Your B/X text only tells you how to run dungeons. It's not really helpful for this. So you improvise. Over time you learn how to run a town game, and come up with some new principles and procedures for playing the town game. This is where Apocalypse World comes from.</p><p></p><p>In principle it's fairly easy. You forget about that dungeon or adventure or whatever your plans for the game were. You absolutely have something your players care about - the town and their position in it. Why not leverage that to play the game? Simply follow the player characters around and introduce threats and opportunities that could upend the status quo. If they won't go to the dungeon, you bring the dungeon to them. Also, establish relationships between PCs and NPCs. What if this PC has a different relationship to this NPC than this other PC? That's solid gold. Now you are basically there to find out what sort of exciting lives these exciting protagonists lead. You can introduce complications, let them deal with threats to the status quo in whatever way they want, and like see who they really are. Now you don't have to try so hard. They have their guys, you have your guys. They play their guys, you play your guys. </p><p></p><p>That's Apocalypse World in a nutshell. There's more to it, of course. Isn't there always? Over time we develop techniques for the best ways to prep (Fronts), ways to make PCs lives not boring, learn to treat our guys like stolen cars, and so much more. All in the name of making room for compelling decisions and interesting fiction. We make a real game out of it.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Campbell, post: 7059261, member: 16586"] Let's talk about the style of GMing that Apocalypse World formalized, but didn't like invent from whole cloth. It basically arises from what happens when you are playing a role playing game in a typical dungeon crawling fashion, but your players are not really interested in any of your dungeons. Now the town and its surrounding environs are loosely detailed because the dungeons are the point right? Your players though, they would rather spend time in town and they have plans. They want to get their protagonist on. You could totally insist they get over themselves and go to a dungeon, but that is not the game they want to be playing. So what do you do? Your B/X text only tells you how to run dungeons. It's not really helpful for this. So you improvise. Over time you learn how to run a town game, and come up with some new principles and procedures for playing the town game. This is where Apocalypse World comes from. In principle it's fairly easy. You forget about that dungeon or adventure or whatever your plans for the game were. You absolutely have something your players care about - the town and their position in it. Why not leverage that to play the game? Simply follow the player characters around and introduce threats and opportunities that could upend the status quo. If they won't go to the dungeon, you bring the dungeon to them. Also, establish relationships between PCs and NPCs. What if this PC has a different relationship to this NPC than this other PC? That's solid gold. Now you are basically there to find out what sort of exciting lives these exciting protagonists lead. You can introduce complications, let them deal with threats to the status quo in whatever way they want, and like see who they really are. Now you don't have to try so hard. They have their guys, you have your guys. They play their guys, you play your guys. That's Apocalypse World in a nutshell. There's more to it, of course. Isn't there always? Over time we develop techniques for the best ways to prep (Fronts), ways to make PCs lives not boring, learn to treat our guys like stolen cars, and so much more. All in the name of making room for compelling decisions and interesting fiction. We make a real game out of it. [/QUOTE]
Insert quotes…
Verification
Post reply
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*TTRPGs General
Judgement calls vs "railroading"
Top