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<blockquote data-quote="pemerton" data-source="post: 6442801" data-attributes="member: 42582">Having re-read this after having cliked the &quot;Reply&quot; button, which I clicked after my first read of it, I feel a slightly greater degree of agreement. No doubt, GM's have a responsibility to manage backstory in most RPGs, and avoiding obvious continuity glitches is part of that.Still, I think it is possible to exaggerate this - both it's importance (in my group, which consists of middle-aged guys meeting once a fortnight, minor continuity slips are simply going to pass unnoticed, including by me as GM!), and it's likelihood as a result of &quot;saying yes&quot;.A related issue - the less the GM takes a firm view on what is &quot;going on&quot;, the easier it is to avoid continuity problems - you just build the continuity out of the most salient things, including things introduced as a result of saying yes to players.That's not what I said.The players, in a typical D&amp;D game, are entitled to expect that when they turn up for a session the GM will have some sort of ingame situation or location - an event, a dungeon, whatever - that will be exciting and interesting for their PCs to engage with.It is not a very big step from that expectation to expecting that the GM's orientation of presenting stuff that they want to get their PCs involved in will cash out at a more fine-grained level too - so if a player asks &quot;Are their boxes?&quot; or &quot;Does the NPC have a beard?&quot;, the GM might answer in a way that goes along with the players' hopes rather than against them.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="pemerton, post: 6442801, member: 42582"] Having re-read this after having cliked the "Reply" button, which I clicked after my first read of it, I feel a slightly greater degree of agreement. No doubt, GM's have a responsibility to manage backstory in most RPGs, and avoiding obvious continuity glitches is part of that. Still, I think it is possible to exaggerate this - both it's importance (in my group, which consists of middle-aged guys meeting once a fortnight, minor continuity slips are simply going to pass unnoticed, including by me as GM!), and it's likelihood as a result of "saying yes". A related issue - the less the GM takes a firm view on what is "going on", the easier it is to avoid continuity problems - you just build the continuity out of the most salient things, including things introduced as a result of saying yes to players. That's not what I said. The players, in a typical D&D game, are entitled to expect that when they turn up for a session the GM will have some sort of ingame situation or location - an event, a dungeon, whatever - that will be exciting and interesting for their PCs to engage with. It is not a very big step from that expectation to expecting that the GM's orientation of presenting stuff that they want to get their PCs involved in will cash out at a more fine-grained level too - so if a player asks "Are their boxes?" or "Does the NPC have a beard?", the GM might answer in a way that goes along with the players' hopes rather than against them. [/QUOTE]

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