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A GMing telling the players about the gameworld is not like real life
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<blockquote data-quote="pemerton" data-source="post: 7581008" data-attributes="member: 42582"><p>No they're not. They're also talking about sticking together and cooperating as a party ("the participants work together for a common goal").</p><p></p><p>By way of contrast, here's an extract from <a href="http://adept-press.com/wordpress/wp-content/media/setting_dissection.pdf" target="_blank">some advice from Ron Edwards</a> on how to run a setting-focused game using a set of rules that doesn't directly address the issue:</p><p></p><p style="margin-left: 20px"><u>Preparation</u></p> <p style="margin-left: 20px">1. Choose a location. The group must discuss and become enthusiastic about the setting, and in many cases, the game organizer will have to present a home-grown summary text painting a big and sketchy picture of the whole setting as well as a more detailed look at the location.</p> <p style="margin-left: 20px"></p> <p style="margin-left: 20px">2. Make player-characters in it. In doing so, drive this into your brain: <em>**** “the adventurer.”</em></p> <p style="margin-left: 20px"></p><p style="margin-left: 20px">• Not all types of characters described in the character creation options are OK. They need to be characters who would definitely be at that location, not just someone who could be there. They have something they ordinarily do there, and are engaged in doing it.</p> <p style="margin-left: 20px"></p> <p style="margin-left: 20px">• All characters, player-characters too, have lives, jobs, families, acquaintances, homes, and everything of that sort. Even if not native to that location, they have equivalents there.</p> <p style="margin-left: 20px"></p> <p style="margin-left: 20px">• Player-characters do not comprise a “team.” They are who they are, individually. Each of them carries a few NPCs along, implied by various details, and those NPCs should be identified. It is helpful for at least one, preferably more of them to be small walking soap operas.</p></p> <p style="margin-left: 20px"></p> <p style="margin-left: 20px"><u>Post-character creation prep</u></p> <p style="margin-left: 20px">3. Along with the adventurer, <em>**** “the adventure.”</em></p> <p style="margin-left: 20px"></p><p style="margin-left: 20px">• They aren’t going anywhere, as in, filling their backpacks and traipsing somewhere besides their immediate location. We’re in this location because this is where the action is.</p> <p style="margin-left: 20px"></p> <p style="margin-left: 20px">• Note that sometimes the player-characters wind up in the same culturally-acknowledged “group” and sometimes they don’t. Either way is fine.</p></p> <p style="margin-left: 20px"></p> <p style="margin-left: 20px">4. Identify the immediate tensions the player-characters and their associated NPCs provoke or experience.</p> <p style="margin-left: 20px"></p> <p style="margin-left: 20px">5. Aggravate the situation with a Trigger event – anything which destabilizes one or more of power, money, status, or resources.</p> <p style="margin-left: 20px"></p><p style="margin-left: 20px">• Consider everything about that location! Geography, ethnicity, politics, economics, religion, cultural practices, and just keep going with anything and everything related to all that stuff.</p></p> <p style="margin-left: 20px"></p> <p style="margin-left: 20px"><u>And now, into play</u></p> <p style="margin-left: 20px">6. Situation: given the Trigger event, the political becomes ever more personal.</p> <p style="margin-left: 20px"></p><p style="margin-left: 20px">• Specifics: consider who’s where, doing what – effectively, play your NPCs with verve. </p> </p><p></p><p>The contrast between this and the RQ text I quoted is pretty clear: the idea is to set up characters, and a game context around those character, which will generate dramatic action <em>without</em> any need for player metagaming about "the party", cooperation, etc.</p><p></p><p>The bottom line is this: it doesn't stop being <em>metagaming</em> just because it's metagaming that [MENTION=23751]Maxperson[/MENTION] doesn't notice, or doesn't object to. (And note that [MENTION=29398]Lanefan[/MENTION] <em>does</em> notice it and <em>does</em> object to it.)</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="pemerton, post: 7581008, member: 42582"] No they're not. They're also talking about sticking together and cooperating as a party ("the participants work together for a common goal"). By way of contrast, here's an extract from [url=http://adept-press.com/wordpress/wp-content/media/setting_dissection.pdf]some advice from Ron Edwards[/url] on how to run a setting-focused game using a set of rules that doesn't directly address the issue: [indent][U]Preparation[/U] 1. Choose a location. The group must discuss and become enthusiastic about the setting, and in many cases, the game organizer will have to present a home-grown summary text painting a big and sketchy picture of the whole setting as well as a more detailed look at the location. 2. Make player-characters in it. In doing so, drive this into your brain: [I]**** “the adventurer.”[/I] [indent]• Not all types of characters described in the character creation options are OK. They need to be characters who would definitely be at that location, not just someone who could be there. They have something they ordinarily do there, and are engaged in doing it. • All characters, player-characters too, have lives, jobs, families, acquaintances, homes, and everything of that sort. Even if not native to that location, they have equivalents there. • Player-characters do not comprise a “team.” They are who they are, individually. Each of them carries a few NPCs along, implied by various details, and those NPCs should be identified. It is helpful for at least one, preferably more of them to be small walking soap operas.[/indent] [U]Post-character creation prep[/U] 3. Along with the adventurer, [I]**** “the adventure.”[/I] [indent]• They aren’t going anywhere, as in, filling their backpacks and traipsing somewhere besides their immediate location. We’re in this location because this is where the action is. • Note that sometimes the player-characters wind up in the same culturally-acknowledged “group” and sometimes they don’t. Either way is fine.[/indent] 4. Identify the immediate tensions the player-characters and their associated NPCs provoke or experience. 5. Aggravate the situation with a Trigger event – anything which destabilizes one or more of power, money, status, or resources. [indent]• Consider everything about that location! Geography, ethnicity, politics, economics, religion, cultural practices, and just keep going with anything and everything related to all that stuff.[/indent] [U]And now, into play[/U] 6. Situation: given the Trigger event, the political becomes ever more personal. [indent]• Specifics: consider who’s where, doing what – effectively, play your NPCs with verve. [/indent][/indent] The contrast between this and the RQ text I quoted is pretty clear: the idea is to set up characters, and a game context around those character, which will generate dramatic action [I]without[/I] any need for player metagaming about "the party", cooperation, etc. The bottom line is this: it doesn't stop being [I]metagaming[/I] just because it's metagaming that [MENTION=23751]Maxperson[/MENTION] doesn't notice, or doesn't object to. (And note that [MENTION=29398]Lanefan[/MENTION] [I]does[/I] notice it and [I]does[/I] object to it.) [/QUOTE]
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