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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: 7583290" data-attributes="member: 42582"><p>More from Over the Edge (p 196 of 20th Anniversary Edition):</p><p></p><p style="margin-left: 20px"><u>Could vs Should</u></p> <p style="margin-left: 20px">One creative block that often keeps GMs from winging an adventure successfully is clinging to what "should" happen instead of imagining what "could" happen.</p> <p style="margin-left: 20px"></p> <p style="margin-left: 20px">For example, the PCs come into Sad Mary's and ask what the crowd looks like. One way to answer the question is to refer to premises and deduce the logical result. Sad Mary's is on the Plaza of Fowers, and lots of artists live in that area, so you deduce that the crowd has more than its share of artistic types. That's deduction: that's interpreting what <em>should</em> happen.</p> <p style="margin-left: 20px"></p> <p style="margin-left: 20px">On the other hand, you could answer that same question by deciding what would be interesting. A bunch of off-duty peace officers, guns in evidence, could be hanging around. There's nothing in the [setting] text about Sad Mary's that says that peace officers frequent the place, but it's not impossible. And it's interesting, especially if the PCs have been to Sad Mary's a gew times already and don't expect to meet Peace Officers here. Now, of course you have to come up with a good reason for their presence. Maybe a friend of theirs is performing. Maybe they just like unsettling people. If you can't figure a good reason, then maybe no one knows. The PCs ask a waiter why all the peace officers are here, and he says he doesn't know. The PC asks a peace officer, and the officer gives some lame excuse. Generally, however, you can figure some reason, and it may lead to new plot ideas. . . .</p> <p style="margin-left: 20px"></p> <p style="margin-left: 20px">Unless your [campaign] is going out of control from sheer entropy, make things up based on what coul dhappen, not on what should.</p><p></p><p>I think this is relevant to the discussion of sudden revelations (whether GM or player authored, like the PC who turns out to be a noble), as well as the original discussion of searching for sect members.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="pemerton, post: 7583290, member: 42582"] More from Over the Edge (p 196 of 20th Anniversary Edition): [indent][U]Could vs Should[/U] One creative block that often keeps GMs from winging an adventure successfully is clinging to what "should" happen instead of imagining what "could" happen. For example, the PCs come into Sad Mary's and ask what the crowd looks like. One way to answer the question is to refer to premises and deduce the logical result. Sad Mary's is on the Plaza of Fowers, and lots of artists live in that area, so you deduce that the crowd has more than its share of artistic types. That's deduction: that's interpreting what [I]should[/I] happen. On the other hand, you could answer that same question by deciding what would be interesting. A bunch of off-duty peace officers, guns in evidence, could be hanging around. There's nothing in the [setting] text about Sad Mary's that says that peace officers frequent the place, but it's not impossible. And it's interesting, especially if the PCs have been to Sad Mary's a gew times already and don't expect to meet Peace Officers here. Now, of course you have to come up with a good reason for their presence. Maybe a friend of theirs is performing. Maybe they just like unsettling people. If you can't figure a good reason, then maybe no one knows. The PCs ask a waiter why all the peace officers are here, and he says he doesn't know. The PC asks a peace officer, and the officer gives some lame excuse. Generally, however, you can figure some reason, and it may lead to new plot ideas. . . . Unless your [campaign] is going out of control from sheer entropy, make things up based on what coul dhappen, not on what should.[/indent] I think this is relevant to the discussion of sudden revelations (whether GM or player authored, like the PC who turns out to be a noble), as well as the original discussion of searching for sect members. [/QUOTE]
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