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Is the DM the most important person at the table
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<blockquote data-quote="prabe" data-source="post: 7923071" data-attributes="member: 7016699"><p>Sure, GMs make mistakes. I've made some (and I've apologized to the tables for them). I think a GM's mistake has a higher likelihood of blowing up a session or even a campaign than a player's decision (short of a decision by the players to attempt something impossible that inevitably TPKs). I guess it seems in my experience as though it works better socially if the GM is the one enforcing the game rules, to keep the players all roughly equal with each other (rather than having one quarterbacking or something).</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>Here's the thing. The characters have a better understanding of the situation than the players do. I find that when a player is asking "Can I [do the thing]?" they're really asking how it would be implemented in the rules, as a way to know if it's worth trying. If I asked the first question and got slightly-smug "You can try ..." I'd ask how the GM intended to make the rules work, and if the GM didn't answer I probably wouldn't do that thing. I don't think that's the kind of play I want at my table. You want to do the thing, your character should have a good sense of whether they can do the thing, here's how I'm likely to apply the rules, see if you think your character should try to do the thing. Players being blindsided because the GM won't explain the rules as applied doesn't sound like good GMing to me, so it can't really be what you're advocating (though I think the implication is there).</p><p></p><p>And passing rules questions to the table seems like a way to bog a sessin down in half an hour of Rules Court. Hard pass.</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>Sure. I personally find running published adventures to be harder than homebrewing, so I guess I'm choosing my own easier path.</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>Maybe consider "hard" to mean some combination of "requires more time," "requires more effort," and "requires more bandwidth."</p><p></p><p>As a side note, it seems to me as though any of the suggestions for easing the GM's in-session workload (passing things off to the players) really seem more likely to slow the game down than anything else. Maybe keeping the session moving isn't everyone's top priority, but it's pretty close to mine.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="prabe, post: 7923071, member: 7016699"] Sure, GMs make mistakes. I've made some (and I've apologized to the tables for them). I think a GM's mistake has a higher likelihood of blowing up a session or even a campaign than a player's decision (short of a decision by the players to attempt something impossible that inevitably TPKs). I guess it seems in my experience as though it works better socially if the GM is the one enforcing the game rules, to keep the players all roughly equal with each other (rather than having one quarterbacking or something). Here's the thing. The characters have a better understanding of the situation than the players do. I find that when a player is asking "Can I [do the thing]?" they're really asking how it would be implemented in the rules, as a way to know if it's worth trying. If I asked the first question and got slightly-smug "You can try ..." I'd ask how the GM intended to make the rules work, and if the GM didn't answer I probably wouldn't do that thing. I don't think that's the kind of play I want at my table. You want to do the thing, your character should have a good sense of whether they can do the thing, here's how I'm likely to apply the rules, see if you think your character should try to do the thing. Players being blindsided because the GM won't explain the rules as applied doesn't sound like good GMing to me, so it can't really be what you're advocating (though I think the implication is there). And passing rules questions to the table seems like a way to bog a sessin down in half an hour of Rules Court. Hard pass. Sure. I personally find running published adventures to be harder than homebrewing, so I guess I'm choosing my own easier path. Maybe consider "hard" to mean some combination of "requires more time," "requires more effort," and "requires more bandwidth." As a side note, it seems to me as though any of the suggestions for easing the GM's in-session workload (passing things off to the players) really seem more likely to slow the game down than anything else. Maybe keeping the session moving isn't everyone's top priority, but it's pretty close to mine. [/QUOTE]
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