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<blockquote data-quote="The Crimson Binome" data-source="post: 6594501" data-attributes="member: 6775031"><p>The situation where a PC encounters a powerful demon eating a corpse is entirely something that <em>could</em> happen in a game I run. It's just that, since I have no way to ensure that situation actually happens (without violating my role as neutral arbiter), the entire plot isn't going to hinge on that encounter.</p><p></p><p>The kind of story where everything hinges on one unlikely coincidence is not one that lends itself toward a game being played in this style, in much the same way that a story with only one protagonist doesn't lend itself toward multi-player games.</p><p></p><p>The story is whatever happens to the PCs. They are <em>highly likely</em> to directly impinge on the actions and activities of the Big Bad. </p><p></p><p>The vast majority of NPCs are not going to influence the story, one way or another, because the first thing that <em>most</em> people do in any situation is <em>nothing</em>, and one of the common traits shared by PCs (and important NPCs) is that they actually <em>do stuff</em>. The DM should avoid protagonizing the PCs, because the players already do a good job of doing that.</p><p></p><p>Yes, the difference is entirely in how the GM decides what will happen. It's an <em>arbitrary</em> choice only in that it is a binding decision by an arbiter, <em>not</em> in that the decision is made without logic or reason; the decision <em>should</em> make sense to anyone in that situation, and not feel random.</p><p></p><p>The naturalistic GM decides that the events which happen will be the events that would otherwise occur if the world was a real place, conforming to known details of that world (not subject to narrative causality). Imagine what's going on in the world, on a typical day. Like every other aspect of being a good GM, some people are better than others at this. Practice helps. </p><p></p><p>An easy tip for making the world <em>feel</em> more realistic (less story-y) is to avoid <em>all</em> unlikely events. While it's certainly more realistic for <em>some</em> unlikely events to happen, unlikely events are also highly noticeable to players, and can make the world seem more contrived than it actually is. A more advanced technique would be to imagine the most likely complication to any event, and then roll a die to determine randomly if that complication shows up.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="The Crimson Binome, post: 6594501, member: 6775031"] The situation where a PC encounters a powerful demon eating a corpse is entirely something that [I]could[/I] happen in a game I run. It's just that, since I have no way to ensure that situation actually happens (without violating my role as neutral arbiter), the entire plot isn't going to hinge on that encounter. The kind of story where everything hinges on one unlikely coincidence is not one that lends itself toward a game being played in this style, in much the same way that a story with only one protagonist doesn't lend itself toward multi-player games. The story is whatever happens to the PCs. They are [I]highly likely[/I] to directly impinge on the actions and activities of the Big Bad. The vast majority of NPCs are not going to influence the story, one way or another, because the first thing that [I]most[/I] people do in any situation is [I]nothing[/I], and one of the common traits shared by PCs (and important NPCs) is that they actually [I]do stuff[/I]. The DM should avoid protagonizing the PCs, because the players already do a good job of doing that. Yes, the difference is entirely in how the GM decides what will happen. It's an [I]arbitrary[/I] choice only in that it is a binding decision by an arbiter, [I]not[/I] in that the decision is made without logic or reason; the decision [I]should[/I] make sense to anyone in that situation, and not feel random. The naturalistic GM decides that the events which happen will be the events that would otherwise occur if the world was a real place, conforming to known details of that world (not subject to narrative causality). Imagine what's going on in the world, on a typical day. Like every other aspect of being a good GM, some people are better than others at this. Practice helps. An easy tip for making the world [I]feel[/I] more realistic (less story-y) is to avoid [I]all[/I] unlikely events. While it's certainly more realistic for [I]some[/I] unlikely events to happen, unlikely events are also highly noticeable to players, and can make the world seem more contrived than it actually is. A more advanced technique would be to imagine the most likely complication to any event, and then roll a die to determine randomly if that complication shows up. [/QUOTE]
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