Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Manbearcat" data-source="post: 8277555" data-attributes="member: 6696971">Its much more complex than a simple configuration of "a lot of control/mandate" vs "limited control/constraint."First you have to consider how asymmetric power relationships manifest in any given situation.  Then you have to consider how the play agendas and authority distribution intersects with that asymmetry.  Then you have to consider how aspects of the system/play are table-facing and aspects of the system/play which are GM-facing intersect with all of this.So for instance, 5e possess the following qualities:1)  Rulings Not Rules + GM as Lead Storyteller + 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.4)  However, simultaneous to that is a Skilled Play imperative that undergirds all D&D play since time immemorial.So you've got competing priorities here.  The typical GMs resolve this is they keep both the Skilled Play Imperative ball and the Storyteller Imperative ball in the air and do their best to decide when one needs to be sacrificed for the sake of the other.  How GM-facing the game is, how asymmetric the power relationships/authority distribution is, how much the offscreen matters all serve as their cover for a lot of this stuff.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.* The Skilled Play Imperative should say that the Long Rest should occur.HOWEVER...* The Storyteller imperative is at tension with whether the Long Rest will occur.  Its 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.  The GM is just extrapolating the fiction 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 to be disabled.  Its entirely possible for the GM to extrapolate the situation naturalistically such that the Long Rest Recharge should be enabled.  Again, also, its entirely appropriate to extrapolate that the Long Rest Recharge should take play from the Skilled Play Priority.But they execute the block (by using move x, y, z) because they deem the Storyteller Imperative as the most important priority here.I hope this explanation and example shows how asymmetric power relationships, authority distribution, Rulings Not Rules (meaning the game isn't tightly encoded and procedures aren't all table-facing), table/GM-facing dynamics (that are togglable at GM discretion), Storyteller Imperative, Skilled Play Priority are almost invariably going to lead to points of tension during play where a GM is going to have to choose between "having their cake" and "eating it too."This is very different than the sort of control (lackthereof) that is systemitized in a game like Dread or via a mechanic like a Doom Pool.</blockquote>

Verification