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Judgement calls vs "railroading"
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<blockquote data-quote="pemerton" data-source="post: 7079292" data-attributes="member: 42582"><p>Here's a bit more about this.</p><p></p><p>Consider the example I was using upthread: the PC enters an inn ut of the rain, and the player casually narrates "I hang my wet cloak on a hook at the door". That is the player authoring new fictional content (ie the existence of hooks at the door of the inn). Does the player have to get the GM's permission first? Does the player have to ask "Are there any hooks at the door? If so, I hang my wet cloak on one."?</p><p></p><p>If the answer to those questions is "yes", then to me that is immersion-breaking: because instead of my PC being at home in the gameworld (being able to see things, make reasonable judgements eg about the standard layout and facilities of inns, etc), the PC is like an alien in a foreign land who needs the GM to affirme, to the player, verything that the PC sees and can do.</p><p></p><p>The same thing is true with NPCs: if the player is always dependent on the GM to explain who NPCs are, what their connection is to the PC, etc, then it is as if this character has no friends, no family, no one who is not a stranger to him/her.</p><p></p><p>It's not a coincidence that so much fantasy RPGing involves Conan-esque characters who are strangers in the lands they travel through. (And see [MENTION=29398]Lanefan[/MENTION] and [MENTION=23751]Maxperson[/MENTION]'s responses upthread to the idea of a PC becoming a magistrate - that this is incompatible with the wandering that is the norm of a PC's life.) REH chose to make Conan a stranger - the only Cimmerian who ever figures in the stories - as a deliberate narrative and thematic device. The hobbits in LotR, for different reasons, are likewise framed as strangers into the situations they encounter. But this is not a necessity of fantasy RPGing. Or fantasy fiction. Ged, in the Earthsea stories, is not a stranger to his world. He knows his way through it. Han Solo is not a stranger to the world of Star Wars. Etc.</p><p></p><p>In my experience, if a player is going to play a character who is part of the world rather than alienated from it, then it's not viable for every bit of the fiction to be mediated through the GM, as if the PC was learning about the world for the first time.</p><p></p><p>If I took this approach, I would feel like I was GMing blind. I wouldn't know what the player was hoping his/her PC would achieve. I wouldn't know what was at stake. I wouldln't know how to apply pressure.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="pemerton, post: 7079292, member: 42582"] Here's a bit more about this. Consider the example I was using upthread: the PC enters an inn ut of the rain, and the player casually narrates "I hang my wet cloak on a hook at the door". That is the player authoring new fictional content (ie the existence of hooks at the door of the inn). Does the player have to get the GM's permission first? Does the player have to ask "Are there any hooks at the door? If so, I hang my wet cloak on one."? If the answer to those questions is "yes", then to me that is immersion-breaking: because instead of my PC being at home in the gameworld (being able to see things, make reasonable judgements eg about the standard layout and facilities of inns, etc), the PC is like an alien in a foreign land who needs the GM to affirme, to the player, verything that the PC sees and can do. The same thing is true with NPCs: if the player is always dependent on the GM to explain who NPCs are, what their connection is to the PC, etc, then it is as if this character has no friends, no family, no one who is not a stranger to him/her. It's not a coincidence that so much fantasy RPGing involves Conan-esque characters who are strangers in the lands they travel through. (And see [MENTION=29398]Lanefan[/MENTION] and [MENTION=23751]Maxperson[/MENTION]'s responses upthread to the idea of a PC becoming a magistrate - that this is incompatible with the wandering that is the norm of a PC's life.) REH chose to make Conan a stranger - the only Cimmerian who ever figures in the stories - as a deliberate narrative and thematic device. The hobbits in LotR, for different reasons, are likewise framed as strangers into the situations they encounter. But this is not a necessity of fantasy RPGing. Or fantasy fiction. Ged, in the Earthsea stories, is not a stranger to his world. He knows his way through it. Han Solo is not a stranger to the world of Star Wars. Etc. In my experience, if a player is going to play a character who is part of the world rather than alienated from it, then it's not viable for every bit of the fiction to be mediated through the GM, as if the PC was learning about the world for the first time. If I took this approach, I would feel like I was GMing blind. I wouldn't know what the player was hoping his/her PC would achieve. I wouldn't know what was at stake. I wouldln't know how to apply pressure. [/QUOTE]
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