Reply to thread

Message

<blockquote data-quote="niklinna" data-source="post: 8991079" data-attributes="member: 71235"><p>Totally this. &quot;Game master&quot; is so often a mashup of referee, judge, plot guardian, filler of gaps, antagonist, and portrayer of the rest of the world, roles that are inherently in conflct, and often in conflict with the very idea of a group activity meant to be fun. PbtA games largely remove the first three responsibilities from the Master of Ceremonies (as Apocalypse World calls it, and I'd argue that still isn't a great name for the job). This allows the MC to really push antagonism when appropriate, and portray the world with all of its antagonists, but also neutral parties and allies. Torchbearer is also pretty clear about that too, although its mechanics are rather baroque in comparison. Blades in the Dark comes close but does have a few chinks, in my limited experience. And then there's Ironsworn, which has full support for GMless play out of the proverbial box. I'm particularly itching to give that game a try sometime. But next up for my group is Stonetop, which is in the PbtA family of games. (It looks to have a Ranger that isn't a heartbreaker so I'm pretty eager to see if it lives up to the promise.)</p></blockquote><p></p>

[QUOTE="niklinna, post: 8991079, member: 71235"] Totally this. "Game master" is so often a mashup of referee, judge, plot guardian, filler of gaps, antagonist, and portrayer of the rest of the world, roles that are inherently in conflct, and often in conflict with the very idea of a group activity meant to be fun. PbtA games largely remove the first three responsibilities from the Master of Ceremonies (as Apocalypse World calls it, and I'd argue that still isn't a great name for the job). This allows the MC to really push antagonism when appropriate, and portray the world with all of its antagonists, but also neutral parties and allies. Torchbearer is also pretty clear about that too, although its mechanics are rather baroque in comparison. Blades in the Dark comes close but does have a few chinks, in my limited experience. And then there's Ironsworn, which has full support for GMless play out of the proverbial box. I'm particularly itching to give that game a try sometime. But next up for my group is Stonetop, which is in the PbtA family of games. (It looks to have a Ranger that isn't a heartbreaker so I'm pretty eager to see if it lives up to the promise.) [/QUOTE]

Verification