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GM DESCRIPTION: NARRATION OR CONVERSATION?
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<blockquote data-quote="Michael Silverbane" data-source="post: 7626044" data-attributes="member: 38016"><p>See. And this is, to me, where jargon becomes a problem. Especially where that jargon uses a word that already applies to the thing in question. There is no doubt to a layman that when I say narration that I mean, "Describing a thing or retelling a sequence of events," and even in a roleplaying game where that lay definition stretches to, "declaring an action within the fictional reference frame," the lay person can easily make that shift. But to expand it to, "taking narrative control of elements of the fiction outside a single character." That makes no sense to me at all.</p><p></p><p>I would call the thing that you just defined as narration, instead, "assuming authority," or, depending on where authority over those fictional elements typically lies in the game, "overstepping authority." And, were someone to tell me that narration in a roleplaying game is restricted to that act of assuming authority, I would reject their use of poorly thought out jargon, and possibly try to get some sort of committee together to find out how this particular use of jargon got started, go back in time, and stop it from happening before it began.</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>Occasionally, a player's action declaration is framing a scene, or at least initiating the framing of a scene by the DM. For instance, "We go to the tea parlor to look for lotus cultists." Is a perfectly valid action declaration (given certain fictional constraints) that either frames a scene (though in an incomplete manner) or directs the DM to do so. i.e. "Hide the good tea set, player characters are coming!"</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Michael Silverbane, post: 7626044, member: 38016"] See. And this is, to me, where jargon becomes a problem. Especially where that jargon uses a word that already applies to the thing in question. There is no doubt to a layman that when I say narration that I mean, "Describing a thing or retelling a sequence of events," and even in a roleplaying game where that lay definition stretches to, "declaring an action within the fictional reference frame," the lay person can easily make that shift. But to expand it to, "taking narrative control of elements of the fiction outside a single character." That makes no sense to me at all. I would call the thing that you just defined as narration, instead, "assuming authority," or, depending on where authority over those fictional elements typically lies in the game, "overstepping authority." And, were someone to tell me that narration in a roleplaying game is restricted to that act of assuming authority, I would reject their use of poorly thought out jargon, and possibly try to get some sort of committee together to find out how this particular use of jargon got started, go back in time, and stop it from happening before it began. Occasionally, a player's action declaration is framing a scene, or at least initiating the framing of a scene by the DM. For instance, "We go to the tea parlor to look for lotus cultists." Is a perfectly valid action declaration (given certain fictional constraints) that either frames a scene (though in an incomplete manner) or directs the DM to do so. i.e. "Hide the good tea set, player characters are coming!" [/QUOTE]
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