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Introducing Complications Without Forcing Players to Play the "Mother May I?" Game
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<blockquote data-quote="Bedrockgames" data-source="post: 7558634" data-attributes="member: 85555"><p>Except describing this just as 'the outcome of a declaration made' is misleading. The players is announcing an intention to go to the tea house and also happens to state why they are going (and you are picking up on that reason as part of the action declaration). The GM lets them go the tea house, and decides what is at the tea house when they get there. An action declaration is something like "I smash the barkeepers face" or "I walk into the tea house". Things like "I take over bone breaking sect", "I go the tea house and find members of bone breaking sect" are not really the same thing (this is blending an action declaration with narrating things going on in the setting (and the first one is covers far too great an expanse of time/events to be considered a far declaration in most games. Either way, you can define that as mother may I if you want, but it simply isn't for the reason people have pointed out. A player may say "I go to the tea house and find members of bone breaking sect" but most GMs are going to read that as "I go to the tea house to see if there are members of bone breaking sec there", and many do not feel they have to add the sect into the scenario just because the player included in their statement. Not including them, isn't mother may I, because mother may I is a situation where the player is constantly prodding the setting for things that should be there, only to be blocked because the GM really wants them to do something else, or hit on something very specific. If the GM had a note like "Bone breaking sect can only ever be found in this one spot on the map" and the players had to keep guessing until they found it, that would be mother may I. But in the example we've been talking about, I and others have said in our responses we are trying to emulate a living organization and environment, where things are not simply pinned down to one spot. And our judgement is simply more "well who would be there at this time". It is possible bone breaking sect would be there, possible they wouldn't, possible one of their representatives or allies or enemies would be there as well. That isn't the kind of play most people have in mind when they say mother may I. It is only mother may I in conversations where people have an axe to grind against something like the traditional GM role or old school style of play, or sessions where role play and in character exploration are really important. Not saying you got to like these things But it is pretty obvious a lot of people in this thread have an axe to grind against a style and are using a term like mother may I to sneak in critiques of it.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Bedrockgames, post: 7558634, member: 85555"] Except describing this just as 'the outcome of a declaration made' is misleading. The players is announcing an intention to go to the tea house and also happens to state why they are going (and you are picking up on that reason as part of the action declaration). The GM lets them go the tea house, and decides what is at the tea house when they get there. An action declaration is something like "I smash the barkeepers face" or "I walk into the tea house". Things like "I take over bone breaking sect", "I go the tea house and find members of bone breaking sect" are not really the same thing (this is blending an action declaration with narrating things going on in the setting (and the first one is covers far too great an expanse of time/events to be considered a far declaration in most games. Either way, you can define that as mother may I if you want, but it simply isn't for the reason people have pointed out. A player may say "I go to the tea house and find members of bone breaking sect" but most GMs are going to read that as "I go to the tea house to see if there are members of bone breaking sec there", and many do not feel they have to add the sect into the scenario just because the player included in their statement. Not including them, isn't mother may I, because mother may I is a situation where the player is constantly prodding the setting for things that should be there, only to be blocked because the GM really wants them to do something else, or hit on something very specific. If the GM had a note like "Bone breaking sect can only ever be found in this one spot on the map" and the players had to keep guessing until they found it, that would be mother may I. But in the example we've been talking about, I and others have said in our responses we are trying to emulate a living organization and environment, where things are not simply pinned down to one spot. And our judgement is simply more "well who would be there at this time". It is possible bone breaking sect would be there, possible they wouldn't, possible one of their representatives or allies or enemies would be there as well. That isn't the kind of play most people have in mind when they say mother may I. It is only mother may I in conversations where people have an axe to grind against something like the traditional GM role or old school style of play, or sessions where role play and in character exploration are really important. Not saying you got to like these things But it is pretty obvious a lot of people in this thread have an axe to grind against a style and are using a term like mother may I to sneak in critiques of it. [/QUOTE]
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