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A GMing telling the players about the gameworld is not like real life
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<blockquote data-quote="Lanefan" data-source="post: 7574793" data-attributes="member: 29398"><p>A lot to dig into here.</p><p></p><p>First, advancement of story and use of mechanics are not necessarily tied together: either can very easily happen without the other.</p><p></p><p>Second, the difference between a movie and an RPG is that a movie has to use a montage in order to keep within time limits where in an RPG there's time to play the montage out in greater depth and detail.</p><p></p><p>Third, a change in the fictional state might have nothing to do with advancing the story. In the game I play in, for example, it looks like we're just starting an arc involving the artifacts of Vecna (again); painting a castle pink during the pre-adventure downtime doesn't advance that story a millimeter but it does change the fictional state: the castle is pink, and some characters have changed their opinions of other characters due to the action and subsequent reactions.</p><p></p><p>Most movies - but by no means all - have enough sense of pacing to intentionally include valleys between the peaks.</p><p></p><p>It probably needs dice on the GM side in order to determine whether you find what you seek (and how much, and how quickly) or whether you find nothing, or whether you find false information that steers you wrong.</p><p></p><p>Perhaps not, but that's no excuse to skip these things entirely or, worse, deny them as legitimate actions. Who knows - there might not be any useful info obtained at all, but you won't know until-unless you do the research.</p><p></p><p>Unless X or Y or Z brings up further questions and-or points to more research to do with A, B and-or C; elements or variables discovered during the first round of digging.</p><p></p><p>If X is a revelation that great-granddad was a vampire then Y, Z, and a bunch of other things are going to come from me digging a lot deeper into his life (and death!) history while putting all of it into a whole new light. With any luck I'll learn he's buried in that crypt before I ever go there, and thus be forewarned and (I hope!) prepared should I meet him there.</p><p></p><p>Or maybe learning he's buried in that crypt changes my mind about wanting to go there right now (or ever, for that matter), and I instead go off and find something else to do for however long it takes me to become confident that I'm tough enough to deal with a vampire should I meet one.</p><p></p><p>Or maybe on learning he's buried in that crypt I figure that if he's potentially a vampire I should probably recruit some trained professional vampire hunters (in D&D these would be high level Clerics) to go in there with me, 'cause if there's one potential vampire down there who knows how many others might be in there with him?</p><p></p><p>Skipping straight from the library to the crypt scene unfairly denies me - both as player and as PC - all these options plus whatever others might arise.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Lanefan, post: 7574793, member: 29398"] A lot to dig into here. First, advancement of story and use of mechanics are not necessarily tied together: either can very easily happen without the other. Second, the difference between a movie and an RPG is that a movie has to use a montage in order to keep within time limits where in an RPG there's time to play the montage out in greater depth and detail. Third, a change in the fictional state might have nothing to do with advancing the story. In the game I play in, for example, it looks like we're just starting an arc involving the artifacts of Vecna (again); painting a castle pink during the pre-adventure downtime doesn't advance that story a millimeter but it does change the fictional state: the castle is pink, and some characters have changed their opinions of other characters due to the action and subsequent reactions. Most movies - but by no means all - have enough sense of pacing to intentionally include valleys between the peaks. It probably needs dice on the GM side in order to determine whether you find what you seek (and how much, and how quickly) or whether you find nothing, or whether you find false information that steers you wrong. Perhaps not, but that's no excuse to skip these things entirely or, worse, deny them as legitimate actions. Who knows - there might not be any useful info obtained at all, but you won't know until-unless you do the research. Unless X or Y or Z brings up further questions and-or points to more research to do with A, B and-or C; elements or variables discovered during the first round of digging. If X is a revelation that great-granddad was a vampire then Y, Z, and a bunch of other things are going to come from me digging a lot deeper into his life (and death!) history while putting all of it into a whole new light. With any luck I'll learn he's buried in that crypt before I ever go there, and thus be forewarned and (I hope!) prepared should I meet him there. Or maybe learning he's buried in that crypt changes my mind about wanting to go there right now (or ever, for that matter), and I instead go off and find something else to do for however long it takes me to become confident that I'm tough enough to deal with a vampire should I meet one. Or maybe on learning he's buried in that crypt I figure that if he's potentially a vampire I should probably recruit some trained professional vampire hunters (in D&D these would be high level Clerics) to go in there with me, 'cause if there's one potential vampire down there who knows how many others might be in there with him? Skipping straight from the library to the crypt scene unfairly denies me - both as player and as PC - all these options plus whatever others might arise. [/QUOTE]
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