Recent content by hawkeyefan

But did you as GM “change” the fiction? You said earlier in the thread that it meant the farrier had always been there. I don’t think it’s objectively bad. There’s a huge portion of the hobby that has embraced this style of play. They play adventure paths. I mean… as far as metaphors go, path...

These two things have nothing to do with each other. The “Cunning Expert” character trait in @pemerton ’s game helps define that character’s role and place in the game. You then made some kind of leap describing that as railroading.All I’ve been doing is pointing out how it’s not railroading...

Like your farrier? So what?

I’m not sure what a Share GM is. As for the split of authority amongst GM and players, that varies by game. It really depends on what the game calls for. Whenever my gaming group starts a new game, we discuss what our expectations are and how the game works and all of that, so everyone has an...

How do you know this? If someone was reading this thread and they had as little experience with games beside D&D and its close relatives as you do, why should they listen to what you have to say instead of what people who have experience with other games have to say?

I have no idea what you are talking about. I don’t see the connection you’re making between a GM and player being on the same page about the PCs role and theme, and whatever it is that you think that says about trad play and railroading. If the GM and player both understand what “Cunning...

Yes that’s true. No one said that it IS a railroad. The player and the GMbeing on the same page… in this case, both having a strong understanding of what “Cunning Expert” entails, is not a railroad. I don’t know exactly what you were thinking when you claimed it was… it’s a not a stance that...

No, not at all. Most of what a GM does falls under the umbrella of “acceptable GM authority”. No, I think that generally, players want their input to matter to play. To different degrees, of course, but still overall they want to influence play and not just play a part in the GM’s story, I...

They’re both examples of GM authority going further than the players would want. In the case of railroading, it’s possible some players may be for it, but generally speaking, it’s considered a negative. When I see people talk about how much authority the GM has and they provide examples, I...

I think @pemerton uses the word to describe a game that involves the players playing through the GM’s prepared story. Where the GM largely decides how things will go by predetermining everything… like what strange runes mean and how that will impact play. I think it’s much less about...

As far as I can tell, no one did. You seemed to misread the idea that a player would know their place in the game (like, their role in play and their character theme… often summarized by things like character class) as some kind of “one true wayism”. That, like cooks and runes being quantum...

He did. I mean… the name of the ability was enough for many of us. None of us decided to google the definition of “cunning” and then stick dogmatically to the first definition we found. But even then, @pemerton then elaborated on it being about classic D&D thief tropes. So if there was any...

And yet… no one posting in this thread who is familiar with these kinds of games shares your concern. Why do you think that is? Are we mistaken? Are we being dishonest? Or do you think perhaps your understanding of the game in question, which you’ve never played, seem not to have read, have...

And you know this how?

I think the lesson here is that sometimes when you google something, you should look at more than the first result.