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Is the DM the most important person at the table
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<blockquote data-quote="pemerton" data-source="post: 7929407" data-attributes="member: 42582"><p>Everything you say in your post is sensible enough. I'm not 100% sure how it is consistent with widespread GM-driven approaches in a way that the ideas you've criticised are not.</p><p></p><p>I think this is correct. It's why in this and some other recent threads I have posted and re-posted that managing the fiction, particularly in relation to framing and consequences, is fundamental to successful GMing.</p><p></p><p>In my view D&D rulebooks have far too few examples of this. (Moldvay Basic is probably the best. I think Gygax's DMG is weak on it, especially as it has so many admonitions not to let players "get away with" stuff. That might have made sense in Gygax's hardcore wargaming crowd, but I don't think works well for more general consumption. The 4e books have few examples of resolution and consequence-narration. The contrast here with the Classic Traveller rules - 30 years older and hundreds of pages shorter but with lots of good advice on this - is marked in my view.</p><p></p><p>I think one source of reluctance in this respect is a desire not to be prescriptive - to rely on general principles like "players can have their PCs try anything" and "the GM will manage the balance of the campaign". But those are unhelpful for a new GM.</p><p></p><p>This is another area where I think GMing advice could be presented more plainly and helpfully. If the goal of play is for the players to work through the AP, then the GM needs to have techniques ready-to-hand that will bring this about. It's counterproductive to this sort of play, for instance, to have advice sections that say "The players can try and have their PCs attempt anything."</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="pemerton, post: 7929407, member: 42582"] Everything you say in your post is sensible enough. I'm not 100% sure how it is consistent with widespread GM-driven approaches in a way that the ideas you've criticised are not. I think this is correct. It's why in this and some other recent threads I have posted and re-posted that managing the fiction, particularly in relation to framing and consequences, is fundamental to successful GMing. In my view D&D rulebooks have far too few examples of this. (Moldvay Basic is probably the best. I think Gygax's DMG is weak on it, especially as it has so many admonitions not to let players "get away with" stuff. That might have made sense in Gygax's hardcore wargaming crowd, but I don't think works well for more general consumption. The 4e books have few examples of resolution and consequence-narration. The contrast here with the Classic Traveller rules - 30 years older and hundreds of pages shorter but with lots of good advice on this - is marked in my view. I think one source of reluctance in this respect is a desire not to be prescriptive - to rely on general principles like "players can have their PCs try anything" and "the GM will manage the balance of the campaign". But those are unhelpful for a new GM. This is another area where I think GMing advice could be presented more plainly and helpfully. If the goal of play is for the players to work through the AP, then the GM needs to have techniques ready-to-hand that will bring this about. It's counterproductive to this sort of play, for instance, to have advice sections that say "The players can try and have their PCs attempt anything." [/QUOTE]
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