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My strong recommendation is that the last paragraph yields far better result in terms of everybody having fun with the campaign. I use the word coach deliberately. A good coach teaches techniques but leaves it to the player to practice or use them. For example, at WizardCon 2025 last week, my...

Fair enough, you care about the theme of the campaign and as result you actively promote that. While I care that my players have fun, I don't have any particular preference for how they have fun in my settings. And yes that would include exploring the lives of Basket Weavers. ;) So...

So what happens all the time with how I run sandbox campaigns is that I will be faced with a handful of plausible outcomes and the odds don't vary significantly I will at times pick the one that most fun or interesting for the players and myself (I don't just consider my interest when I do this...

Just to be clear, the concept of impartiality has been debated in philosophy with several distinct viewpoints. But the one I think is most relevant to tabletop roleplaying is fairness within a framework, meaning you have a set of principles that are applied consistently and without bias, in a...

Depends on what her creative goals are. If I did that based on what I wrote about my creative goals you would be right to question my impartiality. But reading back up the discussion chain, it looks like @Faolyn has her own take that differs from mine.

What you talked about is useful information. However, when it comes to things like "character-centric story-telling," what the poster thinks it means is more important because I am having a discussion on their points, not what somebody else said about the matter. This is exactly why I asked...

:) Yeah, even now, I feel like a young guy compared to the folks I discuss OD&D stuff with—those who played the 3 LBBs. Basically, I was part of the second wave that crested in the early ’80s. I was new enough that my introduction was with the Holmes boxed set, before the AD&D PHB was released...

First, I was told my description was condescending because it emphasized difference. Now I’m told it’s inaccurate because it doesn’t emphasize difference enough. That contradiction speaks for itself. You're also attempting to reframe my position by calling it a “GM-curated world.” That’s not a...

I agree. In my opinion, game mechanics for tabletop RPG campaigns function as terse descriptions of how things work. As descriptions, they reflect the bias of the author writing them, which is why my books are peppered with Rob's Notes, explaining my thinking at strategic moments or for...

I think if it benefited the character's narrative, then yes, some proponents of character-centric play would be willing to discard a previously established fact. I’ve seen this happen in actual play with a friend who enjoys narrative-first systems. But to be clear, the inconsistency has to...

No there isn't anything wrong with making up lore on the fly. But with my experience with sticking to the same setting acoss decades, I find that my bias creep in. It not deliberate, but no matter how broad I try to make my foundation, there are things I just don't consider To overcome this, I...

You ask how this is impartial. I’ve already answered that upthread. If you’re not sure where to find it, I’m happy to link it. But I’m not going to repeat it, because that’s not the real issue here, and going over it again would just put us back into the same cycle that led me to write about...

It depends on what is meant by character-centric storytelling. As I understand it, the term refers to a style where the primary focus is on the player characters’ narratives, and where, over the course of the campaign, the details of the world are prepared in a way that highlights each...

What Lanefan said I am interpreting this Situation: rickety-looking floor And this that the DM knows is in fact sound. to mean that it was read from an keyed encounter written beforehand. You are taking this to mean reason to be cautious (and maybe delay them a bit), It was decided on the...

Because the floor creaks as a result of being old and comprisedof wooden boards pegged to a frame. It is part of the description of the setting. Everybody has been quite clear about where these details come from. What hasn't been said much that many of these details are determined well before...

Narrative authority wasn’t a quote of your language but describing a consistent framing in your posts: that agency must include player goals influencing the fiction, and that referee decisions should be responsive to those goals. That’s a narrative-centered view of agency, even if you reject...

To me, @Micah Sweet and @AlViking both clearly explain that their styles prioritize a world with internal logic rather than character-centric storytelling. @pemerton elects not to address this. Instead, he consistently redirects the discussion toward his own framework, one centered on...