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What is *worldbuilding* for?
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<blockquote data-quote="Ovinomancer" data-source="post: 7402926" data-attributes="member: 16814"><p>It's time for me to say chess and checkers again.</p><p></p><p>Pemerton is relaying the setup from his game and then swapping to a resolution for a different game and trying to say this makes a point, but it's actually incoherent. In pem's playstyle there never is a map for the GM to consult. The blank walls don't exist until they're framed in due to a previous action declaration (likely as a consequence for a previous failure by upping the stakes: trapped in a dead-end with enemies on your heels!). This means that there's zero knowledge on the GM's part as to the state of this area, so that game uses action resolution to help create the backstory needed to advance the story. If a player searches, then a secret door may exist and it will then have been part of the backstory all along.</p><p></p><p>However, when he swaps to the GM checking notes, he's switched to an entirely different game that doesn't have the same underlying premises. In this game, backstory is more fixed and the players have been navigating the game with that understood. The switch is a shell game, he's not just looking at the resolution mechanic, he's eliding the entire prefatory structure to make a simplistic claim, and he's hoping you don't notice. In his game, the GM saying no is railroading, because every action is critical to the players and is to be resolved as such -- the search for the secret door directly speaks to a charter trait or goal and negating that is negating the focus of play.</p><p></p><p>It's not so in the more traditional playstyle, and even in some games in the Story Now mode that makes use of more GM defined backstory that [MENTION=42582]pemerton[/MENTION]'s preference. However, pemerton is more than fine moving the pea in the shell game so that he can label what isn't railroading (and is, as you note, often a tool used to prevent railroading) in one playstyle with what could be considered railroading in another.</p><p></p><p>This is exactly what I brought up before about judging checkers by the rules and assumptions of chess and therefore complaining that jumping is unnecessary to the act of taking a piece because pawns.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Ovinomancer, post: 7402926, member: 16814"] It's time for me to say chess and checkers again. Pemerton is relaying the setup from his game and then swapping to a resolution for a different game and trying to say this makes a point, but it's actually incoherent. In pem's playstyle there never is a map for the GM to consult. The blank walls don't exist until they're framed in due to a previous action declaration (likely as a consequence for a previous failure by upping the stakes: trapped in a dead-end with enemies on your heels!). This means that there's zero knowledge on the GM's part as to the state of this area, so that game uses action resolution to help create the backstory needed to advance the story. If a player searches, then a secret door may exist and it will then have been part of the backstory all along. However, when he swaps to the GM checking notes, he's switched to an entirely different game that doesn't have the same underlying premises. In this game, backstory is more fixed and the players have been navigating the game with that understood. The switch is a shell game, he's not just looking at the resolution mechanic, he's eliding the entire prefatory structure to make a simplistic claim, and he's hoping you don't notice. In his game, the GM saying no is railroading, because every action is critical to the players and is to be resolved as such -- the search for the secret door directly speaks to a charter trait or goal and negating that is negating the focus of play. It's not so in the more traditional playstyle, and even in some games in the Story Now mode that makes use of more GM defined backstory that [MENTION=42582]pemerton[/MENTION]'s preference. However, pemerton is more than fine moving the pea in the shell game so that he can label what isn't railroading (and is, as you note, often a tool used to prevent railroading) in one playstyle with what could be considered railroading in another. This is exactly what I brought up before about judging checkers by the rules and assumptions of chess and therefore complaining that jumping is unnecessary to the act of taking a piece because pawns. [/QUOTE]
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