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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Manbearcat" data-source="post: 6197160" data-attributes="member: 6696971">I'm going to bring a few different angles into play her to break this out.1 - Upthread I contrasted 5e's GMing ethos "Rulings Not Rules" (which comports with GM-force as a highly relevant technique for scene resolution) with one of the primary facets of the Indie (whose paradigm is basically a response to the heavy GM-force era of AD&D 2e, Vampire, etc) GMing ethos.  Here it is again (captured in Dogs in the Vineyard "How to GM"):Drive Play Toward Conflict - Every moment of play, roll dice or say yes.2 - I'm sure you recall the epic thread we all participated in earlier this year; "You're Doing What?  Surprising the GM."  A considerable proportion of that thread was focused around the concept of "thematic relevancy", when/why to transition a scene to "get to the action/conflict", what exactly constitutes a relevant Action Scene, and who gets to decide (and how) if a scene is irrelevant or if it is charged with thematically relevant conflict.  These questions are key here.Ok.  Now.  Marry my statement at the top (specifically the bolded part) with 1 and 2 above.  (i) If "thematic relevancy" has been calibrated (by the ruleset, by PC cues via build/backstory or overt means, and/or has emerged through play), and (ii) the scene at hand is effectively * a transition scene that is not charged with thematically relevant conflict, then (iii) it is expected that a GM will be saying "yes" to mundane/benign interactions that (if an a conflict-charged Action Scene would otherwise be mechanically resolved).  This might be instructive.  Consider the "say yes" part here the equivalent of the "you can take 10/20" rule when you are not under duress...however, you would not be able to leverage that "take 10/20" rule if you are resolving the contest/task while under duress.  However, if during that transition scene, the players are deploying resources or committing to tasks/strategy that will have an effect on future thematically relevant conflict (such as creating an asset for themselves or a complication for the enemy; eg Using a Divination Spell/Ritual), then you would definitely consult the dice (mechanically resolve it) and see what happens.* The premise of the game for Bob the Wizard (The Insanely Curious) is "Bob believes that Tiamat is a myth and, as such, he plans to slay chromatic dragons to ultimate extinction as a test for his hypothesis...to see if Tiamat manifests/intervenes".  He is LOLTROLLing Tiamat.  He slays the Black Dragon, animates it (hoping to potentially draw the ire of the nonexistent Tiamat) and flies back to his tower/lair as he has a few stops to make along the way.  Both of those stops are relevant to the game's premise.  The first is a debriefing with a Coven of Hags whom he promised the swamp to after the dragon was disposed of in exchange for help in locating the swamp.  He also wants them to teach him the Ritual to locate a dragon by name.  Does he convince the coven/successfully parlay with them so that they will assist him?  The second trip is to a draconic ossuary where he lays his newly animated dragon to rest in a ritual bent on defiling Tiamat's name/power and hopes that an audience will be granted.  Does the defiling ritual finally tempt Tiamat or an aspect/emissary to finally show up?Ok.  Between those scenes is half a days overland travel that is subject to changes in weather (possibly hazardous) and territory that may involve proximity to threats (alpha predators or the like).  In classic D&D, serial-time accounting, random-encounter-rolling, procedural play, you may turn those "thematically benign" (not charged with premise-relevant conflict) scenes into Action Scenes.  However, in Indie play, you are most likely to treat them as Transition Scenes (unless the player specifically requests to do something beyond "What do you do?"  "I fly to the coven's lair"), saying "yes" (instead of rolling the dice for weather/hazards/random encounters et al) and moving directly to the next "charged with conflict" Action Scene.  It is a basic expectation of play (by GM and player) in the same way that you wouldn't expect to regularly zoom-in on the walk from the tavern to the blacksmith/fletcher, thus turning an inherent Transition Scene into an Action Scene.  You're pretty much just going to give a quick run-down of the walk and then briefly canvass the situation at the blacksmiths/fletcher.  Not attending to a random-encounter chart with the local thieves guild, the town watch, a group of children, and cutting directly to the locale of interest is not GM-force.  In classic D&D sandboxing, you may endeavor to do so out of the interst of "putting a living, breathing world on exhibition" (which is generally the point of putting players into the jaws of a thematically benign conflict; to convince them there is "stuff" going on out there "off-screen" and entreat them to explore what wonders are out there!).  However, not doing so in any given situation is certainly not GM-force.  "Yes, you get there and..." is pretty orthodox GMing regardless of system defaults and table expectations.</blockquote>

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