GM Authority (Edited For Clarity, Post #148)

[macd21]

In your argument, you are saying the only way for the GM to have fun is for all the other people at the table to bend to their vision.

I just don't think it's fair to prioritize one person's vision over everyone else's. Player 4 is not refusing to play, they just want their voice heard, their portion of the creative process respected.

In my opinion, this GM should realize that to play in a collaborative game means being willing to collaborate.

In your argument, you are saying that the only way for Player 4 to have fun is for the GM to bend to their vision.

The GM is not refusing to let Player 4 play, hejust want his voice heard, his portion of the creative process respected.

Refusing to allow an elf character does not mean the GM is unwilling to collaborate. There are plenty of options that Player 4 can choose from. 'Elf' just isn't one of them. If Player 4 really won't have fun unless they get to play an elf, then they shouldn't play - just as the GM shouldn't run a game that wouldn't be fun for him.

 

[Guest 85555]

Matt Colville put out a video today on a topic like this one (apologies if this has already been posted):

 

[zarionofarabel]

that's like pointing at an xmen comic where almost everyone in it is human unless it's one of the storylines where aliens are involved & saying everyone is a human. While they cut a ton of stuff in the tv series...

daeneryis(sp?) has a high valaryan bloodline which is a big part of why she survived the bonfire.. Purple eyes & silver hair is hardly screams "human", but there is a race that tends to sport that kinda eye/hail color.... I feel like it starts with an e
Dothraki? They gloss over it in the tv series sure, but they are pretty much darksun style elves minus the ears but in a sea of grass instead of sea of sad & built like the spartans from the300 with some vague implications of magic in the blood & such.
Unsullied?... what happens to them is wayyyy beyond just getting snipped with some vague implications of potions/old magic.

A human with magic is not an elf. I also said Game Of Thrones, not A Song Of Ice And Fire or whatever the book series is called. The TV show does deviate from the books as I was told, and TV and movies often don't contain all the details the books do. From my viewing of the TV show, almost the entire cast of characters are human. Maybe some humans with magic (which the campaign premise included) but humans none the less. Humans aren't Elfs, if they were, the player would have just played a human!

 

[zarionofarabel]

In my opinion, this GM should realize that to play in a collaborative game means being willing to collaborate.

I did! I'm collaborating with the three (soon to be five) players that are willing to play humans. I didn't want the campaign to have a magic user in it right off the bat, but it sounds like one of the players wants to do that, so guess what? Compromise!

 

[tetrasodium]

Matt Colville put out a video today on a topic like this one (apologies if this has already been posted):

He makes a lot of good points & I agree with almost all if not all of them, but I'm not so sure that this particular case fits into the reasons he gave because westeros/essos/sothoryos do have things that are elf-like analogues the player could have been directed to.
I think the bigger thing that the video does is to act as a great intro for why the PHB being written so strongly to fit FR & FR alone is so harmful for a gm trying to run settings that do it different (races especially) because those races aren't just tolkein extras or humans with a funny bit of rubber ear/forehead/makeup because they are not human. It's hard to convey how the races are not human & don't think like one when none of the non-fr styles are presented in core books.

 

[billd91]

that's like pointing at an xmen comic where almost everyone in it is human unless it's one of the storylines where aliens are involved & saying everyone is a human. While they cut a ton of stuff in the tv series...

daeneryis(sp?) has a high valaryan bloodline which is a big part of why she survived the bonfire.. Purple eyes & silver hair is hardly screams "human", but there is a race that tends to sport that kinda eye/hail color.... I feel like it starts with an e
Dothraki? They gloss over it in the tv series sure, but they are pretty much darksun style elves minus the ears but in a sea of grass instead of sea of sad & built like the spartans from the300 with some vague implications of magic in the blood & such.
Unsullied?... what happens to them is wayyyy beyond just getting snipped with some vague implications of potions/old magic.

You could skin things that way, but it also works perfectly fine if Valyrians are defined as human. Whichever works better for a specific campaign may depend on some of the themes the DM wants to imply (or dodge).

 

[doctorbadwolf]

P4 is bringing in an elf. So why not orcs too? P1 isn't even asking to play an orc, just that orcs exist and that there be orc encounters. Firearms are in the DMG and shadow monks are in the PHB.

I’m not going to legitimize unlike comparisons just because you continue to push it.

 

[Maxperson]

Why not? If the GM wants a GoT style game and the players want elves and orcs, why not do both?

The GM is not an immaculate artist whose vision must be protected at all costs. The GM is one of many collaborators sitting around a table telling a story.

The GoT setting already has elves. They're called Children of the Forest. They've been gone for centuries and people think that they died out. If one single Child showed up in Westeros, it would have tremendous, game altering implications. That might work for some, but would be proper grounds for a no from others.

 

[Lanefan]

The GM is fictional.

I'll make sure to mention this to my GM at next Saturday's session.

I think he might be a bit surprised to learn he's been a figment of our imagination for the last 40 years.

 

[Lanefan]

A human with magic is not an elf. I also said Game Of Thrones, not A Song Of Ice And Fire or whatever the book series is called. The TV show does deviate from the books as I was told, and TV and movies often don't contain all the details the books do. From my viewing of the TV show, almost the entire cast of characters are human. Maybe some humans with magic (which the campaign premise included) but humans none the less. Humans aren't Elfs, if they were, the player would have just played a human!

Recommendation: read the books ASAP.

Some of your players may be basing their character concepts on ideas from the books that either didn't get into the TV series or didn't translate well.