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With Respect to the Door and Expectations....The REAL Reason 5e Can't Unite the Base
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<blockquote data-quote="pemerton" data-source="post: 6003157" data-attributes="member: 42582"><p>Very interesting.</p><p></p><p>I suspect that my game is low on the sorts of descriptions of the shared fiction that you are talking about - maybe closer to [MENTION=27160]Balesir[/MENTION]'s, although it can be hard to get a sense of these things on a message board.</p><p></p><p>But for "compelling fiction" (by which I mean something closer to [MENTION=54877]Crazy Jerome[/MENTION]'s "cheap novel") I have always relied on situation and stakes, with colour a contributor to that, but otherwise allowed to rise and fall as the mood takes the participants.</p><p></p><p>In Rolemaster and 4e combat, the mechanics go quite a way to making some of the stakes (the tactical stakes, if you like) evident. But I also rely on the embedding of the combat into the broader narrative of the game. (Pause to reiterate: nothing very high brow about the narrative in my game - very familiar, even hackneyed, fantasy tropes.) And in non-combat, where in both games the resolution system is mechanically much more abstracted from the action, the fictional embedding is the overwhelming source of and signaller of stakes. I think (or at least I hope) my various actual play posts and examples help convey the sort of thing I'm talking about here.</p><p></p><p>This is why the 4e DMG comment on the encounter with the gate guards didn't both me one bit - because it's advice I've been following for 20+ years of GMing in any event. I don't sweat over "mere colour" encounters (or "filler encounters" as they're often called when they involve combat): I like to handle these quickly and move on. And if an encounter with some guards evolves or escalates from mere colour to something more serious, I still won't be narrating the colour of their eyes or hair or cloaks, or (generally) putting on a distinctive voice. I'll be emphasising whatever it is that they're talking about that matters to the players, and establishes what is at stake that is making the encounter more than just a source of colour.</p><p></p><p>Anyway, this approach to GMing (which I really started to work out with Oriental Adventures back in 1986-87), probably helps explain why I find 4e supports rather than hinders my immersion with and engagement with the game.</p><p></p><p>It also means that, for me, the threat of burnout comes not from the pressure of keeping up the narration of colour, but rather from the pressure to keep up the framing and evolution of compelling situations. My first long-running RM campaign (1990-97) came to an ignoble end when even I, let alone the players, could no longer keep track of which NPC was doing what and why any of it mattered. Since then, though, I think I've become better at handling my side of things and keeping the players (via their PCs) fully engaged. Letting go a lot of (for my purposes) needless world building and associated world exposition/exploration has been one part of that.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="pemerton, post: 6003157, member: 42582"] Very interesting. I suspect that my game is low on the sorts of descriptions of the shared fiction that you are talking about - maybe closer to [MENTION=27160]Balesir[/MENTION]'s, although it can be hard to get a sense of these things on a message board. But for "compelling fiction" (by which I mean something closer to [MENTION=54877]Crazy Jerome[/MENTION]'s "cheap novel") I have always relied on situation and stakes, with colour a contributor to that, but otherwise allowed to rise and fall as the mood takes the participants. In Rolemaster and 4e combat, the mechanics go quite a way to making some of the stakes (the tactical stakes, if you like) evident. But I also rely on the embedding of the combat into the broader narrative of the game. (Pause to reiterate: nothing very high brow about the narrative in my game - very familiar, even hackneyed, fantasy tropes.) And in non-combat, where in both games the resolution system is mechanically much more abstracted from the action, the fictional embedding is the overwhelming source of and signaller of stakes. I think (or at least I hope) my various actual play posts and examples help convey the sort of thing I'm talking about here. This is why the 4e DMG comment on the encounter with the gate guards didn't both me one bit - because it's advice I've been following for 20+ years of GMing in any event. I don't sweat over "mere colour" encounters (or "filler encounters" as they're often called when they involve combat): I like to handle these quickly and move on. And if an encounter with some guards evolves or escalates from mere colour to something more serious, I still won't be narrating the colour of their eyes or hair or cloaks, or (generally) putting on a distinctive voice. I'll be emphasising whatever it is that they're talking about that matters to the players, and establishes what is at stake that is making the encounter more than just a source of colour. Anyway, this approach to GMing (which I really started to work out with Oriental Adventures back in 1986-87), probably helps explain why I find 4e supports rather than hinders my immersion with and engagement with the game. It also means that, for me, the threat of burnout comes not from the pressure of keeping up the narration of colour, but rather from the pressure to keep up the framing and evolution of compelling situations. My first long-running RM campaign (1990-97) came to an ignoble end when even I, let alone the players, could no longer keep track of which NPC was doing what and why any of it mattered. Since then, though, I think I've become better at handling my side of things and keeping the players (via their PCs) fully engaged. Letting go a lot of (for my purposes) needless world building and associated world exposition/exploration has been one part of that. [/QUOTE]
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