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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Barastrondo" data-source="post: 4841915" data-attributes="member: 3820">It's a variant in playing styles, to be certain. For some, "feels right" is a matter of faithful adherence to the rules of the game or the pre-established module, almost as if running a logarithm would have the same effect. Do something other than what's anticipated in print, and it doesn't feel right. For others (including me and my group), the freedom to improvise, to alter things and to try stuff that a guy you've never met didn't anticipate you doing is all part of "feeling right." The world feels right if you do what you are inclined to, and you still have a game going on. What it tends to come down to is who you trust to give you the best gaming experience, including things like pacing. I trust my buddy Jeff to run a game I'll enjoy more than, say, I trust Monte Cook. I'm sure Monte runs a mean game — but Jeff knows what I like, and can design to meet the standards of things we both find particularly neat. Playing with a designer might teach you a lot about different perspectives on a game, and help you wrap your head around parts you didn't quite get — but ultimately what keeps me personally coming to the table is the experience that reflects my group, not the one that reflects the books.I use a lot of pacing tricks that require no small amount of trust from my players. For one game (non-D&D) I will often do "cold openings," scene-setters that may or may not involve the PCs before the opening credits would roll. Players may start a session in media res, with only the briefest explanation of why they're in a place and why the guy with half a face of scar tissue is trying to kill them. Out-of-character pacing stuff I will do all the time, though always with permission.There are little things that work even without this level of trust, of course. NPC dialogue delivery can encourage players to relax or to tense up, depending on how much tension you get across; if the blacksmith starts speaking urgently, the players might absorb some of that urgency. Keeping an eye on how long combats tend to take can let you figure out if you should probably encourage them to be fighting the lava krakens by 9, so you can have them up against the steam dryads at 10 and have the cliffhanger roughly around 11.</blockquote>

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