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Judgement calls vs "railroading"
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<blockquote data-quote="Xetheral" data-source="post: 7065678" data-attributes="member: 6802765"><p>I think I made it sound more methodical than I intended. Usually (if I'm on the ball) I'm already aware of spotlight time, game pacing, surplus/deficit of plot threads, session timing, etc. The active decision is filtering the question "What would be more fun?" through that pre-existing framework of current priorities. Hence the reason I described it as instinctual. </p><p></p><p>In practice, at any given moment only two or three of the factors are likely to be dominant. So, at least for big decisions (I tend to forget the small ones) I can usually later deconstruct which of the factors I listed predominated in a given decision.</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>A lot of the factors I listed are just a question of being aware of what's going on at the table, how my players are reacting, and what their emotional state is.</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>Oh ok. I had assumed "playing to find out" was a defined term, but since it seemed pretty clear what it meant in context, it doesn't really make a difference either way.</p><p></p><p>While in a way I would agree that I'm playing to "find out what happens", it isn't the primary focus of my games. If they go in an unexpected direction, great. If the players happen be somewhat predictable, that's ok too.</p><p></p><p>I would not agree, however, that I'm playing to "find out who these characters are as revealed through the decisions they make". While characters can and do evolve in my games (usually dependent on campaign length and how much the player in question enjoys such evolution), usually "who [the characters] are" is determined by the players at character creation, typically with an increase in detail as the game goes on. Some important context: usually my games only cover a year or two of in-game time, although they can last longer than that OOC. So there isn't a ton of time for characters' identities to evolve at a realistic pace. (Caveat: occasionally a character ends up playing differently than the player expected, but that isn't the norm at my table. Also, new players often start with only a brief outline, so their first characters' identities tend to develop in play.)</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Xetheral, post: 7065678, member: 6802765"] I think I made it sound more methodical than I intended. Usually (if I'm on the ball) I'm already aware of spotlight time, game pacing, surplus/deficit of plot threads, session timing, etc. The active decision is filtering the question "What would be more fun?" through that pre-existing framework of current priorities. Hence the reason I described it as instinctual. In practice, at any given moment only two or three of the factors are likely to be dominant. So, at least for big decisions (I tend to forget the small ones) I can usually later deconstruct which of the factors I listed predominated in a given decision. A lot of the factors I listed are just a question of being aware of what's going on at the table, how my players are reacting, and what their emotional state is. Oh ok. I had assumed "playing to find out" was a defined term, but since it seemed pretty clear what it meant in context, it doesn't really make a difference either way. While in a way I would agree that I'm playing to "find out what happens", it isn't the primary focus of my games. If they go in an unexpected direction, great. If the players happen be somewhat predictable, that's ok too. I would not agree, however, that I'm playing to "find out who these characters are as revealed through the decisions they make". While characters can and do evolve in my games (usually dependent on campaign length and how much the player in question enjoys such evolution), usually "who [the characters] are" is determined by the players at character creation, typically with an increase in detail as the game goes on. Some important context: usually my games only cover a year or two of in-game time, although they can last longer than that OOC. So there isn't a ton of time for characters' identities to evolve at a realistic pace. (Caveat: occasionally a character ends up playing differently than the player expected, but that isn't the norm at my table. Also, new players often start with only a brief outline, so their first characters' identities tend to develop in play.) [/QUOTE]
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