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Experiencing the fiction in RPG play
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<blockquote data-quote="Campbell" data-source="post: 7820513" data-attributes="member: 16586"><p>What follows is just my perspective.</p><p></p><p>The idea of living breathing game worlds has never really sat well with me even when talking about sandbox play. Where does the world live? How does it breathe? What is is its animating animus? From my perspective thinking off screen is a useful valuable GM technique, but the setting of a game is a designed thing - not something with a life of its own. We want players to feel the setting is a dynamic place that changes both based on the decisions they make, but also on its own. However the intent is to provide a compelling play space with which the players can interact and should be designed with this in mind.</p><p></p><p>When I do a faction turn between sessions of Stars Without Number the resulting changes to the fiction the players experience in play are not the result of a living world. They are the result of me, the referee, doing a thing and then doing additional design work to make sense of it.</p><p></p><p>I do not design worlds. Depending on the game I might design settings. I might design adventures. I might design scenarios. I might frame scenes. I might make GM moves. I might design sandboxes. In every case I am designing a space to be played in where players can make decisions that matter. Those changes to the setting that occur between sessions, especially the ones that happen off screen are the result of deliberate design. I am the animating force and bear a responsibility for that design work.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Campbell, post: 7820513, member: 16586"] What follows is just my perspective. The idea of living breathing game worlds has never really sat well with me even when talking about sandbox play. Where does the world live? How does it breathe? What is is its animating animus? From my perspective thinking off screen is a useful valuable GM technique, but the setting of a game is a designed thing - not something with a life of its own. We want players to feel the setting is a dynamic place that changes both based on the decisions they make, but also on its own. However the intent is to provide a compelling play space with which the players can interact and should be designed with this in mind. When I do a faction turn between sessions of Stars Without Number the resulting changes to the fiction the players experience in play are not the result of a living world. They are the result of me, the referee, doing a thing and then doing additional design work to make sense of it. I do not design worlds. Depending on the game I might design settings. I might design adventures. I might design scenarios. I might frame scenes. I might make GM moves. I might design sandboxes. In every case I am designing a space to be played in where players can make decisions that matter. Those changes to the setting that occur between sessions, especially the ones that happen off screen are the result of deliberate design. I am the animating force and bear a responsibility for that design work. [/QUOTE]
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