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="pemerton" data-source="post: 7063913" data-attributes="member: 42582">[MENTION=6802765]Xetheral[/MENTION]You probably won't be surprised that I want to present a hypothetical example of play that puts pressure on the "disconnect" idea. I'm curious what you make of it.Scenario: The PCs have busted some smugglers (eg Sinister Secret of Saltmarsh). One of the PCs has, as part of her backstory, that her hometown is a "hive of scum and villainy" (including smugglers). The player of this PC tells the the GM, "I look at the smuggled crates - is there any mark to suggest that they came from, or passed through, my hometown?" The GM has to respond - and, for the sake of this example it is stipulated that the GM has nothing prewritten about this (ie about where the smuggled goods came from).Now we have a moment of action declaration, which forces the GM to author something. There are different ways of doing that - my way is one of them!Upthread [MENTION=16586]Campbell[/MENTION] and I made some posts about "transparency" - ie being clear to players about how GMing decisions are made. So generally I wouldn't expect the players not to know how something is being authored at that point.Well, the player knows that the reason for narrating the PC finding the cursed black arrows is because it will "make for a better story and a more enjoyable game" ie I am narrating that sort of consequence for that sort of reason. If the check was a success, then I wouldn't have the chance to do so - because the ensuing events would be those that the player (and PC) wanted (ie finding the nickel-silver mace where it was left in the tower, many years ago).More generally, I don't think it can ever be the case that the player knowledge matches the PC knowledge - the players inevitably know that this stuff was authored, by the GM, for some reason or other.My point here being that the line - if it exists - is a very fine one.</blockquote>

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