NOW LIVE! Today's the day you meet your new best friend. You don’t have to leave Wolfy behind... In 'Pets & Sidekicks' your companions level up with you!

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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Campbell" data-source="post: 7061170" data-attributes="member: 16586">I absolutely agree that characters are shaped by their history and their aspirations for the future, and I totally want players to concern themselves in that way. That context is fundamental.  For me, it's just a question of where the primary interest is. I totally understand that for some people there is a certain joy in seeing everything come together in a beautifully crafted arc that they work with the GM to fulfill. I am just not one of those people most of the time. I tend to like things messy, fairly simple, and raw. The GM style I prefer most of the time is aimed at arriving at a particular type of narrative without trying too hard to get there - deeply personal stories where we find out what the characters really value. As a group, we're finding this out together. Being audience and participant at the same time makes this enjoyable for me. It's a set of techniques, but not like the only set of techniques. Some of these techniques and principles are also fairly useful in other contexts.This advice, although primarily meant for a GM's NPCs describes the approach I take to playing a character as well.    Yeah. There definitely is a danger in going overboard. Everyone's emotional safety and consent becomes more crucial when you are playing hard. It helps to do check-ins and take breaks. Building and maintaining trust is also crucial. It's also not for everyone. For some or even most people these games are mostly diverting past times. Not everyone is fit for every game, and you don't always want full bore emotional immersion all the time. Sometimes it is okay to step back and let a fight just be a fight. Moments of catharsis are just as important as moments of high drama. There's a reason why I don't always play Apocalypse World, Monsterhearts, Urban Shadows, or Vampire - The Requiem. Sometimes you just have to stomp on some orcs. Games like Dungeon World, Masks, and Blades in the Dark allow you to break up the serious stuff with some more catharsis while employing a lot of the same techniques in different ways. Sometimes I also enjoy dungeon bashing in B/X , exploring a sandbox in Stars Without Number or Traveller, or more mythic, violent and visceral 4e play. [MENTION=42582]pemerton[/MENTION] has sometimes accused me of being a bit too serious in my play, and he probably is onto something.</blockquote>

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