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Judgement calls vs "railroading"
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<blockquote data-quote="Ilbranteloth" data-source="post: 7095496" data-attributes="member: 6778044"><p>Overall I agree with most of this. I disagree with the "players trying to find out what is written in the GM's notes." Or I guess it's the sense that you (or others) seem to consider that a negative. If the players are fighting a skulker, they may just be trying to survive the battle. They might not be giving any consideration beyond that, and may never give any consideration to it. Whether I have notes or not.</p><p></p><p>Just like creating the motivation on the fly isn't better or worse, neither is creating it ahead of time. Nor does that mean that the player have any interest in finding out what's in my notes. They remain interested in the world, the fiction, and whether I have it pre-written or not is (in my mind) irrelevant. Just as having it prewritten doesn't mean that it will actually come into play, nor that it will necessarily restrict my options as a DM as the scene unfolds.</p><p></p><p>Where it is a problem, is if they DM works to ensure that the players decide to learn what's in the DM's notes. That is, if the DM has prepared something so tries to push the play to ensure that his hard work will be used.</p><p></p><p>The reality, as far as I'm concerned, is this: The DM is providing the motivation for the skulker. Whether the DM predetermines that, improvises it, uses some sort of combination of the two, or even predetermines it, then changes it as better alternatives present themselves, is all good.</p><p></p><p>As a DM I certainly can't know or plan for everything ahead of time. I might have a motivation, if not, I'll have to improvise.</p><p>I won't know what the PCs are going to do, or where the fiction will lead for the evening. So I might need to change something.</p><p>I don't agree that the skulker <em>has</em> to relate to the rest of the campaign's fiction, but it doesn't mean it can't either.</p><p></p><p>And in regards to [MENTION=61721]Hawke[/MENTION]yfan - there are quite a few people in the world that think that's exactly how the world works. Some people believe in fate, and that their lives are essentially predetermined (not saying I do, but I won't deny others the right to their beliefs). Of course, in the real world, each person is their own author. In that case, there isn't an overarching DM-being that's authoring everything, but they are taking on that roles. This isn't to turn this thread into a discussion about this. Just pointing out that like gaming theory, there are a lot of perspectives on how life works, and we may both be wrong.</p><p></p><p>Having said that, what is a simple fact is that a DM has a limited amount of time to prepare stuff, without having full information as to where the adventure will lead for the evening. If you don't want to be railroaded, then the DM has to rely on things like improvisation, and sometimes changing what they were thinking ahead of time. Can you run a game without these sorts of things? Yes, but I personally don't enjoy when I have to run a game like that (due to participant preferences) because it greatly limits my options to provide options for the players/characters.</p><p></p><p>One could eliminate the "authoring" by using an entirely randomly determined dungeon and event generator. But that is still authored in the sense that there area limited number of options on the table, and somebody had to decide what those were.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Ilbranteloth, post: 7095496, member: 6778044"] Overall I agree with most of this. I disagree with the "players trying to find out what is written in the GM's notes." Or I guess it's the sense that you (or others) seem to consider that a negative. If the players are fighting a skulker, they may just be trying to survive the battle. They might not be giving any consideration beyond that, and may never give any consideration to it. Whether I have notes or not. Just like creating the motivation on the fly isn't better or worse, neither is creating it ahead of time. Nor does that mean that the player have any interest in finding out what's in my notes. They remain interested in the world, the fiction, and whether I have it pre-written or not is (in my mind) irrelevant. Just as having it prewritten doesn't mean that it will actually come into play, nor that it will necessarily restrict my options as a DM as the scene unfolds. Where it is a problem, is if they DM works to ensure that the players decide to learn what's in the DM's notes. That is, if the DM has prepared something so tries to push the play to ensure that his hard work will be used. The reality, as far as I'm concerned, is this: The DM is providing the motivation for the skulker. Whether the DM predetermines that, improvises it, uses some sort of combination of the two, or even predetermines it, then changes it as better alternatives present themselves, is all good. As a DM I certainly can't know or plan for everything ahead of time. I might have a motivation, if not, I'll have to improvise. I won't know what the PCs are going to do, or where the fiction will lead for the evening. So I might need to change something. I don't agree that the skulker [I]has[/I] to relate to the rest of the campaign's fiction, but it doesn't mean it can't either. And in regards to [MENTION=61721]Hawke[/MENTION]yfan - there are quite a few people in the world that think that's exactly how the world works. Some people believe in fate, and that their lives are essentially predetermined (not saying I do, but I won't deny others the right to their beliefs). Of course, in the real world, each person is their own author. In that case, there isn't an overarching DM-being that's authoring everything, but they are taking on that roles. This isn't to turn this thread into a discussion about this. Just pointing out that like gaming theory, there are a lot of perspectives on how life works, and we may both be wrong. Having said that, what is a simple fact is that a DM has a limited amount of time to prepare stuff, without having full information as to where the adventure will lead for the evening. If you don't want to be railroaded, then the DM has to rely on things like improvisation, and sometimes changing what they were thinking ahead of time. Can you run a game without these sorts of things? Yes, but I personally don't enjoy when I have to run a game like that (due to participant preferences) because it greatly limits my options to provide options for the players/characters. One could eliminate the "authoring" by using an entirely randomly determined dungeon and event generator. But that is still authored in the sense that there area limited number of options on the table, and somebody had to decide what those were. [/QUOTE]
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