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Message: <blockquote data-quote="EzekielRaiden" data-source="post: 8933458" data-attributes="member: 6790260">The single most important, most productive thing you can do is, "Nurture genuine player enthusiasm whenever it appears, to the fullest practical extent."Some of those phrases are loaded. Let's unpack.<ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">"Nurture...player enthusiasm": You, as DM/GM/etc., have a lot of weight in any discussion. This is built in for all games which feature a role of this kind. Even in DW and other PbtA games where the GM role is narrower in some sense. When you put forth thoughts, most players will have at least a strong drive to heed them, to follow along. Other things might draw them too, but almost always your thoughts will weigh heavy. Hence, throw that weight where it can do good work, namely, behind the player, so they know that when they try crazy/weird/offbeat stuff, they can do so boldly.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">"genuine player enthusiasm": I use this phrase a lot. Genuine player enthusiasm is not exploitative, abusive, or coercive. "Exploitative" actions clearly break the (hopefully, but not always, explicit) "spirit," purpose, or tone of the game. "Abusive" actions use the contents of the game to cause harm or distress to others. "Coercive" actions involve forcing others to participate in ways they don't want to. As long as the player isn't doing any of those things, you should support their interests and goals.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">"the fullest practical extent": I want to avoid being wordy (a known problem for me!), so I kept this short, but I want to be clear here, this isn't an excuse to shirk. I really, REALLY mean the absolute fullest extent you can possibly do without it being a clear problem. As the person with the "authority," it's on you to use it well, to be responsible, and I claim part of doing that is embracing player ideas even when you have doubts.</li> </ul>I am absolutely certain that if you do this, it will encourage more player creativity and very nearly certain it will produce a more enjoyable experience for your players.Being perfectly honest? Reading about Dungeon World. Hopefully so that it will get you to play some DW.I'm only kind of joking. If you can play DW and really, truly grok why it is such a good game, why it is so well-designed, I genuinely believe that those revelations will improve your ability to DM.</blockquote>

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