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Judgement calls vs "railroading"
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<blockquote data-quote="Manbearcat" data-source="post: 7093418" data-attributes="member: 6696971"><p>Bold is mine to focus on that. Two things:</p><p></p><p>1) Being constrained by fictional positioning and bearing the discipline of GMing principles and adherence to "the system's say" doesn't mean that you don't get to unleash your unbridled creativity. Some of this comes down to mental framework; what/how many balls you want in the air at any one time and how you perceive attention to <em>this ball</em> or <em>that ball</em> degrading either (a) attention to other balls, (b) attention to the juggling act as a whole, and/or (c) your enjoyment of the process (and attendant ability to stay fresh).</p><p></p><p>For instance. I have as much confidence in my ability to GM as any person who has ever run a roleplaying game. Yet, at this point in my GMing career (lets call it), I do not want the responsibility of managing or energizing a complex (complexity is key here) and inherently unbalanced or dynamism deficient combat (violent or social) system (assuming violent and social combat are supposed to be major arenas of resolution). Those are two separate balls (balance and dynamism). Some GMs may consider those extra balls in the air (responsibility/mandate) a gross increase in GM agency. I don't look at it that way at all. I consider it a net loss to my GMing agency, because when you put one or both of those balls in the air, all of my (a), (b), and (c) above are negatively affected. Needless to say, I am not pleased.</p><p></p><p>This is a big deal that we don't discuss enough (or with enough clarity): </p><p><strong><em></em></strong></p><p><strong><em>"When is a gross increase in GM responsibility a net loss in GM agency (both near term due to cognitive workload/mental overhead issues and long term due to burnout)?"</em></strong></p><p></p><p>I would love to have a conversation solely focused on that.</p><p></p><p>2) Consider this brief exchange from a Dungeon World play excerpt I linked upthread:</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>So the player here has a somewhat constrained menu of prospective action declarations due to the fictional positioning she was dealing with (which is always the case in TTRPGs). She could have probably done 3-4 things with effectiveness approaching thematic/archetypal coherency and high prospects for success. She probably had a few more fairly decent decisions.</p><p></p><p>Then she has the agency of choosing her Volley complication; either (a) less damage, (b) spent Ammo (which she couldn't much afford at that point), or (c) danger. </p><p></p><p>When she chooses danger (which is very common in DW), my menu of options for that danger opens up <strong><em>dramatically</em></strong>. I went with the above, but due to all the pieces in play that I control and the (non-binary and multi-vector) nature of the system's machinery (resolution mechanics, tags and resource attrition/status effect system, and fictional trigger requirements for moves), I could have made probably a good dozen or more distinct moves that would changed the situation, observed fictional positioning continuity, observed the GMing principles and the games agenda, while escalating the threat level and introducing a new, interesting decision tree to one or both of the players. </p><p></p><p>So, on the strength of (1) and (2) above, my creativity does not feel particularly bridled when running Dungeon World (neither in the moment nor long term)!</p><p></p><p>[HR][/HR]</p><p></p><p>Let us focus on that for now (these conversations wind all over the place that I feel we often miss the trees for the forest). I'll address the other two parts of your post in the upcoming days (my time is pretty limited right now).</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Manbearcat, post: 7093418, member: 6696971"] Bold is mine to focus on that. Two things: 1) Being constrained by fictional positioning and bearing the discipline of GMing principles and adherence to "the system's say" doesn't mean that you don't get to unleash your unbridled creativity. Some of this comes down to mental framework; what/how many balls you want in the air at any one time and how you perceive attention to [I]this ball[/I] or [I]that ball[/I] degrading either (a) attention to other balls, (b) attention to the juggling act as a whole, and/or (c) your enjoyment of the process (and attendant ability to stay fresh). For instance. I have as much confidence in my ability to GM as any person who has ever run a roleplaying game. Yet, at this point in my GMing career (lets call it), I do not want the responsibility of managing or energizing a complex (complexity is key here) and inherently unbalanced or dynamism deficient combat (violent or social) system (assuming violent and social combat are supposed to be major arenas of resolution). Those are two separate balls (balance and dynamism). Some GMs may consider those extra balls in the air (responsibility/mandate) a gross increase in GM agency. I don't look at it that way at all. I consider it a net loss to my GMing agency, because when you put one or both of those balls in the air, all of my (a), (b), and (c) above are negatively affected. Needless to say, I am not pleased. This is a big deal that we don't discuss enough (or with enough clarity): [B][I] "When is a gross increase in GM responsibility a net loss in GM agency (both near term due to cognitive workload/mental overhead issues and long term due to burnout)?"[/I][/B] I would love to have a conversation solely focused on that. 2) Consider this brief exchange from a Dungeon World play excerpt I linked upthread: So the player here has a somewhat constrained menu of prospective action declarations due to the fictional positioning she was dealing with (which is always the case in TTRPGs). She could have probably done 3-4 things with effectiveness approaching thematic/archetypal coherency and high prospects for success. She probably had a few more fairly decent decisions. Then she has the agency of choosing her Volley complication; either (a) less damage, (b) spent Ammo (which she couldn't much afford at that point), or (c) danger. When she chooses danger (which is very common in DW), my menu of options for that danger opens up [B][I]dramatically[/I][/B]. I went with the above, but due to all the pieces in play that I control and the (non-binary and multi-vector) nature of the system's machinery (resolution mechanics, tags and resource attrition/status effect system, and fictional trigger requirements for moves), I could have made probably a good dozen or more distinct moves that would changed the situation, observed fictional positioning continuity, observed the GMing principles and the games agenda, while escalating the threat level and introducing a new, interesting decision tree to one or both of the players. So, on the strength of (1) and (2) above, my creativity does not feel particularly bridled when running Dungeon World (neither in the moment nor long term)! [HR][/HR] Let us focus on that for now (these conversations wind all over the place that I feel we often miss the trees for the forest). I'll address the other two parts of your post in the upcoming days (my time is pretty limited right now). [/QUOTE]
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