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GMs: Guiding Morals in GMing
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<blockquote data-quote="pemerton" data-source="post: 8989956" data-attributes="member: 42582"><p>Vincent Baker says the following about how to author Fronts (from AW p 136):</p><p></p><p style="margin-left: 20px">[W]hen you create a front, follow your own inspiration. Choose the things that are suggestive to you, that put you in mind of apocalyptica, romance, violence, gore, danger, trauma. Choose the things you’d just <expletive deleted> kill to see well done on the big screen, and skip the things that don’t spark your interest.</p><p></p><p>That said, he also says this (on the same page):</p><p></p><p style="margin-left: 20px">Creating a front means making decisions about backstory and about NPC motivations. Real decisions, binding ones, that call for creativity, attention and care. You do it outside of play, between sessions, so that you have the time and space to think.</p><p></p><p>So whim ("inspiration") is expected to play a role, but not be all of it. Attention and care are also important, because this stuff is <em>binding</em>.</p><p></p><p>Of course, you're absolutely correct that decision-making during the course of play need not be on a whim. <em>Whim</em> is not synonymous with <em>improvised</em> or <em>unprepared</em> or <em>spontaneous</em>. The OED gives "whim" as meaning "A capricious notion or fancy; a fantastic or freakish idea; an odd fancy." That seems about right to me. Not everything that is improvised or spontaneous need be capricious. Given my day job, I have two models of highly serious spontaneous decision-making: how to answer a question when giving a paper (or even a lecture, seminar etc); and a judicial decision made during the course of a hearing. Both require decision-making on the spur of the moment. Neither, when done well, involves acting on a whim.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="pemerton, post: 8989956, member: 42582"] Vincent Baker says the following about how to author Fronts (from AW p 136): [indent][W]hen you create a front, follow your own inspiration. Choose the things that are suggestive to you, that put you in mind of apocalyptica, romance, violence, gore, danger, trauma. Choose the things you’d just <expletive deleted> kill to see well done on the big screen, and skip the things that don’t spark your interest.[/indent] That said, he also says this (on the same page): [indent]Creating a front means making decisions about backstory and about NPC motivations. Real decisions, binding ones, that call for creativity, attention and care. You do it outside of play, between sessions, so that you have the time and space to think.[/indent] So whim ("inspiration") is expected to play a role, but not be all of it. Attention and care are also important, because this stuff is [I]binding[/I]. Of course, you're absolutely correct that decision-making during the course of play need not be on a whim. [I]Whim[/I] is not synonymous with [I]improvised[/I] or [I]unprepared[/I] or [I]spontaneous[/I]. The OED gives "whim" as meaning "A capricious notion or fancy; a fantastic or freakish idea; an odd fancy." That seems about right to me. Not everything that is improvised or spontaneous need be capricious. Given my day job, I have two models of highly serious spontaneous decision-making: how to answer a question when giving a paper (or even a lecture, seminar etc); and a judicial decision made during the course of a hearing. Both require decision-making on the spur of the moment. Neither, when done well, involves acting on a whim. [/QUOTE]
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