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<blockquote data-quote="AbdulAlhazred" data-source="post: 8966423" data-attributes="member: 82106"><p>And to my mind this is the exact function of a GM in, say, Dungeon World. By constructing the game's process of play/agenda/principles in such a way as to surface the player's notion of the win conditions, and even reinforce them (IE the player creates bonds and decides when they are discharged, granting XP) then it all works really well. The GAME is pretty robust, and the GM has a specific set of conditions under which they offer up additional challenges. Those challenges are, mechanically, overcome via deployment of certain resources and a fixed dice rolling mechanism that doesn't offer the GM any chance to put their thumb on the scales. The GM can set the scale and thus the in-story pacing of the action, but that has relatively little impact on play in a mechanical sense. Since the GM doesn't explicitly create a world (they do have a significant role here, but it isn't dominant), they are not set up as the adjudicator of the rules (the table is), and while they do play the NPCs, as I said above, the most the GM can do with that is focus on or avoid certain types of fiction (IE a GM could play all the NPCs as aggressive belligerent jerks who constantly provoke fights or something like that). Even that is, at the very best, treading the line into bag GMing.</p><p></p><p>The one thing PbtA (and basically the same thing goes for other similar systems) won't do is lay off on the PCs! They ARE the focus of the game. Frankly, I don't think there's any point in discussing that dimension anymore though. IMHO the opposite 'choice' leads to the same place anyway, because the PCs ARE the focus of the game, that is simply ground truth.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="AbdulAlhazred, post: 8966423, member: 82106"] And to my mind this is the exact function of a GM in, say, Dungeon World. By constructing the game's process of play/agenda/principles in such a way as to surface the player's notion of the win conditions, and even reinforce them (IE the player creates bonds and decides when they are discharged, granting XP) then it all works really well. The GAME is pretty robust, and the GM has a specific set of conditions under which they offer up additional challenges. Those challenges are, mechanically, overcome via deployment of certain resources and a fixed dice rolling mechanism that doesn't offer the GM any chance to put their thumb on the scales. The GM can set the scale and thus the in-story pacing of the action, but that has relatively little impact on play in a mechanical sense. Since the GM doesn't explicitly create a world (they do have a significant role here, but it isn't dominant), they are not set up as the adjudicator of the rules (the table is), and while they do play the NPCs, as I said above, the most the GM can do with that is focus on or avoid certain types of fiction (IE a GM could play all the NPCs as aggressive belligerent jerks who constantly provoke fights or something like that). Even that is, at the very best, treading the line into bag GMing. The one thing PbtA (and basically the same thing goes for other similar systems) won't do is lay off on the PCs! They ARE the focus of the game. Frankly, I don't think there's any point in discussing that dimension anymore though. IMHO the opposite 'choice' leads to the same place anyway, because the PCs ARE the focus of the game, that is simply ground truth. [/QUOTE]
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