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Jon Peterson: Does System Matter?
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<blockquote data-quote="pemerton" data-source="post: 8202047" data-attributes="member: 42582"><p>To me this suggests that you haven't understood my post.</p><p></p><p>Let's look at just one issue: <em>who gets to leverage offscreen fiction</em>?</p><p></p><p>I'll provide one example, which is taken from a sidebar in the 3E D&D module Bastion of Broken Souls with the heading "The Second String". I don't have my copy ready to hand, so I can't remember all the names of the characters. But what the sidebar says, roughly, is that <em>if the PCs kill a particular NPC, whose function in the "plot" of the module is to be used by the GM to drive the players towards certain goals and decision-points, then the GM should introduce the "second string" of NPCs - a group of 3 balors - to perform the same function</em>.</p><p></p><p>That instruction to the GM only makes sense because the 3E system, like the AD&D 2nd ed and 5e systems, takes for granted that the GM has <em>unfettered authority over what is happening offscreen, and when and how it can be brought onscreen</em>.</p><p></p><p>That assumption is not part of Moldvay Basic D&D and Gygax's AD&D: these assume that, once the dungeon key is written, the GM can only introduce new content during a delve via the wandering monster rules. What happens <em>between</em> delves is a bit more vague - and in fact I think there are contradictions between Gygax's PHB and his DMG in this respect, perhaps reflecting his evolving thinking - but the limit on GM authority during a delve is enough to illustrate the point that the assumption is not universal.</p><p></p><p>MHRP/Cortex+ Heroic doesn't have anything like a wandering monster or dungeon key process as part of the system, but also imposes constraints on how the GM can access the offscreen and bring it onscreen, <em>and </em>gives players authority to do so also.</p><p></p><p>These allocations of authority are as much a feature of 5e D&D as other systems that have similar or different such allocations. The fact that they are invisible to you suggests to me that you don't have much experience with varying them. That helps to explain why you tend to doubt that system matters, and also while you seem to frame all RPGing through the lens of the players working through the GM's pre-established story.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="pemerton, post: 8202047, member: 42582"] To me this suggests that you haven't understood my post. Let's look at just one issue: [I]who gets to leverage offscreen fiction[/I]? I'll provide one example, which is taken from a sidebar in the 3E D&D module Bastion of Broken Souls with the heading "The Second String". I don't have my copy ready to hand, so I can't remember all the names of the characters. But what the sidebar says, roughly, is that [I]if the PCs kill a particular NPC, whose function in the "plot" of the module is to be used by the GM to drive the players towards certain goals and decision-points, then the GM should introduce the "second string" of NPCs - a group of 3 balors - to perform the same function[/I]. That instruction to the GM only makes sense because the 3E system, like the AD&D 2nd ed and 5e systems, takes for granted that the GM has [I]unfettered authority over what is happening offscreen, and when and how it can be brought onscreen[/I]. That assumption is not part of Moldvay Basic D&D and Gygax's AD&D: these assume that, once the dungeon key is written, the GM can only introduce new content during a delve via the wandering monster rules. What happens [I]between[/I] delves is a bit more vague - and in fact I think there are contradictions between Gygax's PHB and his DMG in this respect, perhaps reflecting his evolving thinking - but the limit on GM authority during a delve is enough to illustrate the point that the assumption is not universal. MHRP/Cortex+ Heroic doesn't have anything like a wandering monster or dungeon key process as part of the system, but also imposes constraints on how the GM can access the offscreen and bring it onscreen, [I]and [/I]gives players authority to do so also. These allocations of authority are as much a feature of 5e D&D as other systems that have similar or different such allocations. The fact that they are invisible to you suggests to me that you don't have much experience with varying them. That helps to explain why you tend to doubt that system matters, and also while you seem to frame all RPGing through the lens of the players working through the GM's pre-established story. [/QUOTE]
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