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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Manbearcat" data-source="post: 7097401" data-attributes="member: 6696971">Snipped  @<a href="http://www.enworld.org/forum/member.php?u=42582" target="_blank">pemerton</a> 's breakdown of BW GM responsibilities.  So GM cognitive workload and mental overhead comes down to two primary evaluations IME:1)  Desirous vs TediousDo I enjoy the game's expectant or necessary conversation/pacing/mood-enhancing techniques, book-keeping (mental and physical), scribing, examination-with-potential-for-required-hacking of the mechanics, interfacing with the resolution mechanics to produce dynamism/interesting and meaningful player choice?2)  Utility vs CostHow much efficient, coherent (with respect to the game's agenda) function does this responsibility provide and does it negatively impact my attention elsewhere?  Further, does it (in the course of multiple applications over multiple sessions) mentally tax to the point that my interest or sharpness becomes fatigued by the weight of it?A game like Burning Wheel or Torchbearer (and honestly, I'll say Blades in the Dark at this point  @<a href="http://www.enworld.org/forum/member.php?u=16586" target="_blank">Campbell</a> ) has considerable, interfacing system components that do a lot of work to create the overall play experience.  The GM must not just understand the "how" these mechanical components work (by themselves but, more importantly, together), but they must intimately understand the "why."  This might be a heavy cognitive burden.However...the elegance, coherency, predictability, and intuitiveness of the system's machinery (components by themselves, with respect to each other, and with respect to the games' agenda in full) is an enormous mitigating factor here.  Even though the sum total is significant, the mesh of it makes it less so because the "how" and the "why" becomes extremely easy to understand and instinctual in relatively short order.  These games are engineered to do precisely what they say and, while there is a lot going on under the hood (and in the GM's brain), there is no "beating it into shape" required before, during, or after play to reliably produce the play experience.  Just understanding, player advocacy for their PCs, and principled application of deft GMing.(Since you brought it up) Now if we juxtapose with 3.x, you get nearly the inverse Utility:Cost relationship as you do in the games above.  The game says it wants to be a "kick in the door" and "back to the dungeon" experience.  So action-packed, fast-paced B/X like?  Uh no.  The game is fundamentally engineered to make it nearly impossible for a dungeon to be an impediment.  It doesn't provide the machinery to make B/X dungeoncrawling work.  The pacing of the game is entirely centered around (i) the unbelievably prolific, scaling, and powerful spells and the (ii) the PCs prolific means to facilitate their recovery and loadout so they can be deployed to circumvent/obviate obstacles.  This relationship is entirely adversarial to any sort of action-packed and fast-paced initiative that the game designers may have made the initial target.  It (predictably and reliably) produces the exact opposite of "kick in the door" and "back to the dungeon."Complicating matters is an overwhelming amount of book-keeping (referencing an absurd amount of information, adjusting numbers for buffs and then readjusting for Dispel), cognitive maintenance of ruleset components and interactions, and the "beating into shape" (grotesque intra-party imbalance and grotesque outcome unpredictability - for the GM 0 which often requires Illusionism to head-off anticlimax and niche protection/PC relevance) before, during, and after to hopefully reproduce the NOT "kick in the door" and NOT "back to the dungeon" play agenda that you've pushed play towards (which is typically some form of Gritty Paladins and Princesses).  So, on the spectra of Desirous <<<<<>>>>> Tedious and Utility <<<<<>>>>>Cost, I put 3.x deeply on the right of both while something from the Burning Wheel family (like Mouse Guard), the PBtA family (like Dungeon World), or the Cortex+ family (like Heroic Fantasy) registers well to the left of center on both.</blockquote>

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