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A Question Of Agency?
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<blockquote data-quote="pemerton" data-source="post: 8168820" data-attributes="member: 42582"><p>There is really only one difference you're pointing to here: the priority of GM over player authorship.</p><p></p><p></p><p>The sort of change of meaning that you refer to can happen if the GM introduces something spontaneously (my 2 upthread). Or if the GM picks up on player leads (eg when I picked up on the players' idea that the ghosts were Celts). I think insisting that only the GM's preconceived meaning is valid is a very strong constraint. In its strongest form it means that the GM gets to decide whether an encounter is a combat or a social one, or whether an encounter results in a new ally or a new enemy.</p><p></p><p></p><p>Different systems adopt different approaches to the narration of failure.</p><p></p><p>If the PCs go Streetwising or Urban Survivaling around to try and meet up with people who are interesting to them, and fail, there's a fair chance that the GM won't just narrate "nothing happens". I would expect that, more likely, the PCs meet the wrong people or perhaps the wrong people (guards, thieves' guild, old nemeses, etc) find them! Even if the outcome is <em>you don't meet anyone interesting</em> there's still likely to be a rider, like <em>you waste a day not finding anyone interesting</em>.</p><p></p><p>I don't see there being any big difference here between my (1) and my (3) - as I said, both require a check and if that check fails the GM needs to establish the consequence of failure.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="pemerton, post: 8168820, member: 42582"] There is really only one difference you're pointing to here: the priority of GM over player authorship. The sort of change of meaning that you refer to can happen if the GM introduces something spontaneously (my 2 upthread). Or if the GM picks up on player leads (eg when I picked up on the players' idea that the ghosts were Celts). I think insisting that only the GM's preconceived meaning is valid is a very strong constraint. In its strongest form it means that the GM gets to decide whether an encounter is a combat or a social one, or whether an encounter results in a new ally or a new enemy. Different systems adopt different approaches to the narration of failure. If the PCs go Streetwising or Urban Survivaling around to try and meet up with people who are interesting to them, and fail, there's a fair chance that the GM won't just narrate "nothing happens". I would expect that, more likely, the PCs meet the wrong people or perhaps the wrong people (guards, thieves' guild, old nemeses, etc) find them! Even if the outcome is [I]you don't meet anyone interesting[/I] there's still likely to be a rider, like [I]you waste a day not finding anyone interesting[/I]. I don't see there being any big difference here between my (1) and my (3) - as I said, both require a check and if that check fails the GM needs to establish the consequence of failure. [/QUOTE]
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