Manbearcat
Legend
Question for 5e GMs out there. I proposed this in another thread, and I'm curious about the community at larges' answer.
Consider the lead question (and the question in the poll).
5e (by design) possesses significant asymmetric power relationships and authority distribution disparity. It also possesses two play priorities that can sometimes be at tension: Skilled Play Imperative and Storyteller Imperative. The configuration of this (by my reckoning) is captured below:
1) Rulings Not Rules (not just action resolution mediation...this also includes following rules/ignoring rules/changing rules in the pursuit of a memorable story and a fun time) + GM as Lead Storyteller (a Role and the mandate afforded that role to ensure a memorable is told at the table and people have "fun.")
2) An admixture of table-facing and GM-facing aspects of play that can wax/wane/change as play unfolds.
3) (1) + (2) above is a mandate for the deployment of GM Force at the GM's discretion to facilitate their role and responsibility as lead storyteller/entertainer/fun-ensurer.
4) However, simultaneous to that is a Skilled Play imperative that undergirds all D&D play since time immemorial (eg defeat each individual obstacle and the continuum of obstacles skillfully and be rewarded).
So you've got the potential for competing priorities here. Since the late 80s (when the Storyteller Imperative "came online"), the typical way Traditional GMing has resolved this is by attempting to juggle both the Skilled Play Imperative ball and the Storyteller Imperative ball, keeping them in the air as best they can, only until one must be prioritized over the other. How GM-facing the game is, how asymmetric the power relationships/authority distribution is, how much the manipulation of offscreen/backstory items (particularly offscreen and backstory items that have yet to be established in play) matters... all collectively serve as cover for letting one of those two balls fall to the floor while the other remains suspended (with the GM prioritizing it as the most important imperative at this particular moment of play).
So consider the Rest/Recharge. The players have played Skillfully in a scenario (be it a dungeon crawl or a plane-hopping excursion or a wilderness trek or whatever). They've relatively dominated but they've expended enough resources that they want to attempt a Long Rest to Recharge.
* The Table-Facing aspects of play all say that the Wizard and the group's contingencies should allow this Long Rest to occur. They have defeated the obstacles skillfully, skillfully picked their builds to allow the recharge, carefully planned their contingencies to enable the recharge.
* The Skilled Play Imperative requires the Long Rest should occur.
HOWEVER...
* The Storyteller imperative is at tension with whether the Long Rest will occur. Its invariably (or at least almost assuredly) going to lead to unrewarding, anticlimax if it occurs.
* The GM-Facing and the asymmetric power relationship say that the GM can just deploy move x, y, or z (or all 3 if they wish) to ensure that the Long Rest Recharge doesn't occur. There is nothing systemitizing this (like, say, the way the table-facing Doom Pool grows in Cortex as a result of play and there are rules about when/how it grows and when/how the GM can deploy it to erect a "block" of a player move). The GM is just extrapolating from the fiction (and almost surely leveraging offscreen/backstory info that hasn't been established in play) in order to make this happen...but the important part here is that their first principles to justify this "block" are The Storyteller Imperative requires the Long Rest Recharge must be disabled.
So its entirely possible for the GM to extrapolate the situation naturalistically such that the Long Rest Recharge should be enabled and the GM can naturalistically extrapolate "the block" (disabling The Long Rest Recharge), because, realistically, almost any situation can possess enough intersecting variables such that a model would yield a dozen or more reasonably likely outcomes.
So the question in the poll is, in the above situation, do you prioritize Skilled Play (the players have defeated the obstacles before them and done all the things that would reasonably allow for a Long Rest Recharge...BUT...the story is going to suffer for it because the climax is going to be anticlimactic) OR do you prioritize your responsibility with the Storytelling Imperative (you execute the block by using move x, y, z, which you can always reasonably extrapolate because of your unilateral access to offscreen/backstory, and deny the Long Rest Recharge because you deem the Storyteller Imperative as the most important priority here)?
Which do you do 5e GMs?
PSA - Please don't drag this into "False Dichotomy" territory. There are going to be moments where the results of Skilled Play will absolutely lead to Anti-climax (negatively affecting the impact and "memorablnessitude" of a key story moment). At these moments the Skilled Play and Memorable Story priorities are entirely at tension (and as a 5e GM, it is your principal job to facilitate these aspects of play). D&D players/participants/magazine articles/forums have discussed this since time immemorial. Just consider any moment like that if you don't like the example above. As a 5e GM, as an expression of your 5e GM-liness and the mandate afforded you...how do you typically respond? Which ball stays on the air...which ball hits the ground?
Consider the lead question (and the question in the poll).
5e (by design) possesses significant asymmetric power relationships and authority distribution disparity. It also possesses two play priorities that can sometimes be at tension: Skilled Play Imperative and Storyteller Imperative. The configuration of this (by my reckoning) is captured below:
1) Rulings Not Rules (not just action resolution mediation...this also includes following rules/ignoring rules/changing rules in the pursuit of a memorable story and a fun time) + GM as Lead Storyteller (a Role and the mandate afforded that role to ensure a memorable is told at the table and people have "fun.")
2) An admixture of table-facing and GM-facing aspects of play that can wax/wane/change as play unfolds.
3) (1) + (2) above is a mandate for the deployment of GM Force at the GM's discretion to facilitate their role and responsibility as lead storyteller/entertainer/fun-ensurer.
4) However, simultaneous to that is a Skilled Play imperative that undergirds all D&D play since time immemorial (eg defeat each individual obstacle and the continuum of obstacles skillfully and be rewarded).
So you've got the potential for competing priorities here. Since the late 80s (when the Storyteller Imperative "came online"), the typical way Traditional GMing has resolved this is by attempting to juggle both the Skilled Play Imperative ball and the Storyteller Imperative ball, keeping them in the air as best they can, only until one must be prioritized over the other. How GM-facing the game is, how asymmetric the power relationships/authority distribution is, how much the manipulation of offscreen/backstory items (particularly offscreen and backstory items that have yet to be established in play) matters... all collectively serve as cover for letting one of those two balls fall to the floor while the other remains suspended (with the GM prioritizing it as the most important imperative at this particular moment of play).
So consider the Rest/Recharge. The players have played Skillfully in a scenario (be it a dungeon crawl or a plane-hopping excursion or a wilderness trek or whatever). They've relatively dominated but they've expended enough resources that they want to attempt a Long Rest to Recharge.
* The Table-Facing aspects of play all say that the Wizard and the group's contingencies should allow this Long Rest to occur. They have defeated the obstacles skillfully, skillfully picked their builds to allow the recharge, carefully planned their contingencies to enable the recharge.
* The Skilled Play Imperative requires the Long Rest should occur.
HOWEVER...
* The Storyteller imperative is at tension with whether the Long Rest will occur. Its invariably (or at least almost assuredly) going to lead to unrewarding, anticlimax if it occurs.
* The GM-Facing and the asymmetric power relationship say that the GM can just deploy move x, y, or z (or all 3 if they wish) to ensure that the Long Rest Recharge doesn't occur. There is nothing systemitizing this (like, say, the way the table-facing Doom Pool grows in Cortex as a result of play and there are rules about when/how it grows and when/how the GM can deploy it to erect a "block" of a player move). The GM is just extrapolating from the fiction (and almost surely leveraging offscreen/backstory info that hasn't been established in play) in order to make this happen...but the important part here is that their first principles to justify this "block" are The Storyteller Imperative requires the Long Rest Recharge must be disabled.
So its entirely possible for the GM to extrapolate the situation naturalistically such that the Long Rest Recharge should be enabled and the GM can naturalistically extrapolate "the block" (disabling The Long Rest Recharge), because, realistically, almost any situation can possess enough intersecting variables such that a model would yield a dozen or more reasonably likely outcomes.
So the question in the poll is, in the above situation, do you prioritize Skilled Play (the players have defeated the obstacles before them and done all the things that would reasonably allow for a Long Rest Recharge...BUT...the story is going to suffer for it because the climax is going to be anticlimactic) OR do you prioritize your responsibility with the Storytelling Imperative (you execute the block by using move x, y, z, which you can always reasonably extrapolate because of your unilateral access to offscreen/backstory, and deny the Long Rest Recharge because you deem the Storyteller Imperative as the most important priority here)?
Which do you do 5e GMs?
PSA - Please don't drag this into "False Dichotomy" territory. There are going to be moments where the results of Skilled Play will absolutely lead to Anti-climax (negatively affecting the impact and "memorablnessitude" of a key story moment). At these moments the Skilled Play and Memorable Story priorities are entirely at tension (and as a 5e GM, it is your principal job to facilitate these aspects of play). D&D players/participants/magazine articles/forums have discussed this since time immemorial. Just consider any moment like that if you don't like the example above. As a 5e GM, as an expression of your 5e GM-liness and the mandate afforded you...how do you typically respond? Which ball stays on the air...which ball hits the ground?
