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<blockquote data-quote="pemerton" data-source="post: 6732899" data-attributes="member: 42582">I've never thought of myself as part of an &quot;indie community&quot;. To the extent that I have observed such a community from the outside (eg reading Forge threads, reading some rpg.net threads) I think my gaming would be regarded as pretty banal by many or most members of that community.But I've always regarded as obvious that the Forge wasn't about inventing new ways to play, but rather about describing, in a certain abstract and systematised way, various ways in which RPGs are played, and trying to design some games to suit that.In my own case, I've always made it clear that the Forge helped me make sense of what I was doing, and thereby to do it better. It didn't teach me how to frame scenes, but it did teach me the vocabulary to describe &quot;scene-framing&quot; as a technique.Yes. I assume all this is obvious.In some other threads discussing some issues similar to this one I've made clear my dislike of &quot;secret backstory&quot; - ie backstory known only by the GM, and not accessible to the players in the course of resolution - having a bearing on action resolution. To me that comes very close to the GM roleplaying with him-/herself.Whereas in [MENTION=23751]Maxperson[/MENTION]'s game that sort of secret backstory - eg the assassination plot - seems pretty important.I think my game is better for me. I hope that Maxperson is playing a game that is good for Maxperson.The point of distinguishing between them isn't to establish that one is better than the other in some non-relativised sense. It's to make it clear that advice or rules or techniques that work for Maxperson won't work for everyone (and likewise for me).In the context of threads about GMing advice, which are fairly common on ENworld, it's also about making it clear what range of approaches is available. So it's also about saying &quot;Hey, I'm doing this thing and it works for me. If you're having trouble with what you're doing or something's not working for you, maybe this will be some help.&quot;</blockquote>

[QUOTE="pemerton, post: 6732899, member: 42582"] I've never thought of myself as part of an "indie community". To the extent that I have observed such a community from the outside (eg reading Forge threads, reading some rpg.net threads) I think my gaming would be regarded as pretty banal by many or most members of that community. But I've always regarded as obvious that the Forge wasn't about inventing new ways to play, but rather about describing, in a certain abstract and systematised way, various ways in which RPGs are played, and trying to design some games to suit that. In my own case, I've always made it clear that the Forge helped me make sense of what I was doing, and thereby to do it better. It didn't teach me how to frame scenes, but it did teach me the vocabulary to describe "scene-framing" as a technique. Yes. I assume all this is obvious. In some other threads discussing some issues similar to this one I've made clear my dislike of "secret backstory" - ie backstory known only by the GM, and not accessible to the players in the course of resolution - having a bearing on action resolution. To me that comes very close to the GM roleplaying with him-/herself. Whereas in [MENTION=23751]Maxperson[/MENTION]'s game that sort of secret backstory - eg the assassination plot - seems pretty important. I think my game is better for me. I hope that Maxperson is playing a game that is good for Maxperson. The point of distinguishing between them isn't to establish that one is better than the other in some non-relativised sense. It's to make it clear that advice or rules or techniques that work for Maxperson won't work for everyone (and likewise for me). In the context of threads about GMing advice, which are fairly common on ENworld, it's also about making it clear what range of approaches is available. So it's also about saying "Hey, I'm doing this thing and it works for me. If you're having trouble with what you're doing or something's not working for you, maybe this will be some help." [/QUOTE]

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