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Judgement calls vs "railroading"
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<blockquote data-quote="pemerton" data-source="post: 7095571" data-attributes="member: 42582"><p>The reason I describe it as "GM-driven" and as driven by the GM's interests/concerns is because the world, the events in it, the reactions of the NPCs, the hooks, the possibilities, have all been authored by the GM (or taken by the GM from something someone else wrote).</p><p></p><p></p><p>But the choices that are made ("prices are high", "everyone else holds firm on price", "rumours of war") are all made by the GM. And they do seem to steer the fiction in a certain direction - at least, they certainly steer it <em>away</em> easy access to silk.</p><p></p><p>In so far as the world looms large in play, and imposes constraints on and consequences for player action declarations for their PCs, it is the GM's vision of the world that seems to be paramount. The players, in the course of play, learn more about that. That is what I mean by "learning what is in the GM's notes". The player, by (say) having his/her PC looking around for the seller of silk at the the lowest price, is learning something about the GM's account/conception of the world. The shared fiction isn't being established <em>in response to</em>, and as part of the context of, the players declaring actions for their characters.</p><p></p><p>Upthread of your post, I posted this about the role of the GM and player in BW (pp 268-69 (Revised); 551-52 (Gold)):</p><p></p><p style="margin-left: 20px">In Burning Wheel, it is the GM's job to interpret all of the varous intents of the players' actions and mesh them into a cohesive whole that fits within the context of the game. He's got to make sure that all the player wackiness abides by the rules. . . . Often this requires negotiating an action or intent until both player and GM are satisfied that it fits both the concept and the mood of the game. . . .</p> <p style="margin-left: 20px"></p> <p style="margin-left: 20px">[T]he players . . . have duties . . . [to] offer hooks to their GM and the other players in the form of Beliefs, Instincts and Traits . . .</p><p></p><p>The player offers the hooks. The GM responds to them. If there is uncertainty we talk (as I posted upthread, I am not interested in GMing blind). That's part of the force of Luke Crane's comparison of GMing Moldvay Basic to a cross between telephone and pictionary. In Basic the GM <em>isn't</em> talking to the players in that way, kibitzing with them, negotiating the framing with them. But in BW this is standard stuff. The GM isn't "guessing" or "interpreting" (I'm assuming we can put aside the philosophical questions of solipsism, other minds, etc in this context).</p><p></p><p></p><p>For me, at least, it's not about creating on the fly. It's about the context of and rationale for authoring the motivation. I prefer it to emerge from the play of the game - ie roughly, as an output; not an input.</p><p></p><p>As a player, I think it's not that hard to tell when the GM is running the game based on his/her (pre-)conception of the fiction, rather than in response to the players' hooks.</p><p></p><p>I've already posted <a href="https://isabout.wordpress.com/2010/02/16/the-pitfalls-of-narrative-technique-in-rpg-play" target="_blank">this</a> several times. Here it is again:</p><p></p><p style="margin-left: 20px">One of the players is a gamemaster whose job it is to keep track of the backstory, frame scenes according to dramatic needs (that is, go where the action is)</p><p></p><p>By "going where the action is" I mean framing scenes according to dramatic need: ie picking up on the players' hooks.</p><p></p><p>But I do think it's good advice to GMs to (in general) avoid boring stuff. (Obviously what is boring is relative. As I posted upthread to [MENTION=29398]Lanefan[/MENTION], I find shopping for clothes boring in real life and boring in game also. I wouldn't suppose that's a universal view.)</p><p></p><p>All I'm saying is that you're the one who drew the inference from conflict to combat, and it's in your game, not mine that the players' response to an angry bear was to kill it.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="pemerton, post: 7095571, member: 42582"] The reason I describe it as "GM-driven" and as driven by the GM's interests/concerns is because the world, the events in it, the reactions of the NPCs, the hooks, the possibilities, have all been authored by the GM (or taken by the GM from something someone else wrote). But the choices that are made ("prices are high", "everyone else holds firm on price", "rumours of war") are all made by the GM. And they do seem to steer the fiction in a certain direction - at least, they certainly steer it [I]away[/I] easy access to silk. In so far as the world looms large in play, and imposes constraints on and consequences for player action declarations for their PCs, it is the GM's vision of the world that seems to be paramount. The players, in the course of play, learn more about that. That is what I mean by "learning what is in the GM's notes". The player, by (say) having his/her PC looking around for the seller of silk at the the lowest price, is learning something about the GM's account/conception of the world. The shared fiction isn't being established [I]in response to[/I], and as part of the context of, the players declaring actions for their characters. Upthread of your post, I posted this about the role of the GM and player in BW (pp 268-69 (Revised); 551-52 (Gold)): [indent]In Burning Wheel, it is the GM's job to interpret all of the varous intents of the players' actions and mesh them into a cohesive whole that fits within the context of the game. He's got to make sure that all the player wackiness abides by the rules. . . . Often this requires negotiating an action or intent until both player and GM are satisfied that it fits both the concept and the mood of the game. . . . [T]he players . . . have duties . . . [to] offer hooks to their GM and the other players in the form of Beliefs, Instincts and Traits . . .[/indent] The player offers the hooks. The GM responds to them. If there is uncertainty we talk (as I posted upthread, I am not interested in GMing blind). That's part of the force of Luke Crane's comparison of GMing Moldvay Basic to a cross between telephone and pictionary. In Basic the GM [I]isn't[/I] talking to the players in that way, kibitzing with them, negotiating the framing with them. But in BW this is standard stuff. The GM isn't "guessing" or "interpreting" (I'm assuming we can put aside the philosophical questions of solipsism, other minds, etc in this context). For me, at least, it's not about creating on the fly. It's about the context of and rationale for authoring the motivation. I prefer it to emerge from the play of the game - ie roughly, as an output; not an input. As a player, I think it's not that hard to tell when the GM is running the game based on his/her (pre-)conception of the fiction, rather than in response to the players' hooks. I've already posted [url=https://isabout.wordpress.com/2010/02/16/the-pitfalls-of-narrative-technique-in-rpg-play]this[/url] several times. Here it is again: [indent]One of the players is a gamemaster whose job it is to keep track of the backstory, frame scenes according to dramatic needs (that is, go where the action is)[/indent] By "going where the action is" I mean framing scenes according to dramatic need: ie picking up on the players' hooks. But I do think it's good advice to GMs to (in general) avoid boring stuff. (Obviously what is boring is relative. As I posted upthread to [MENTION=29398]Lanefan[/MENTION], I find shopping for clothes boring in real life and boring in game also. I wouldn't suppose that's a universal view.) All I'm saying is that you're the one who drew the inference from conflict to combat, and it's in your game, not mine that the players' response to an angry bear was to kill it. [/QUOTE]
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