Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="hawkeyefan" data-source="post: 8141117" data-attributes="member: 6785785">Because they fit or don’t fit someone’s preference? The good and bad bit is subjective, and I’m not saying what’s good or bad. Not sure why you’d frame your response along those lines.Sure, that’s probably part of it. No, it’s not. A GM not allowing players to determine their PC’s backstory limits agency. It’s an area of the fiction on which a player can have input, and possibly shape the fiction of the game. If I’m allowed to say that my PC is secretly the heir to the throne and that he wants to restore his claim....that’s me telling the GM what I’d like to see in play. If the GM looks at me and says “No....we’re gonna do Descent Into Avernus, so that backstory isn’t suitable” then he has limited my ability to determine what the game is about, and my character’s place in it. Whether or not this is good in that it’s an acceptable way to play or not is up to the individual. Again, this isn’t about “Agency = Good”.Okay, what would be other areas? I agree there are others. Principles of play would likely be the big one that leaps to my mind. What would you say would be ways to communicate intent and purpose? I would say a RPG session with no rules is as different a thing as one with no GM. Without rules, how is it a game? Sounds like it would just be people having a conversation about pretend things. No....rules should not get out of the way. They should promote and inspire and enable play. They’re essential.</blockquote>

Verification