Pineapple Express: Someone Is Wrong on the Internet?
- Thread starter Snarf Zagyg
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RealAlHazred
Frumious Flumph (Your Grace/Your Eminence)
Brock Samson, you old dog!
(Wait...isnt this from an old Nintendo game? What is this? lol)
RealAlHazred
Frumious Flumph (Your Grace/Your Eminence)
I think there's a disconnect between "GM fiat" and "the GM's job" (understanding that it's not actually a job, of course). If I-as-GM describe a town, and they player says, "I'm going to go to the market to buy angel feathers," it's just my "job" to decide if there's a market. If I decide based on my understanding of demographics ("Well, the town has a population of 500 people, and markets usually exist if there's at least 400, so there probably is") then that's just my "job." If I'm running entirely on plot-necessity, and I decide the market's presence or not based on the needs of plot, then I still don't necessarily think that's "GM fiat," it's still my "job," it's just a different set of criteria I'm using (besides "demographics") -- all criteria are arbitrary from one standpoint or another, so it's up to the GM which they use.
In my understanding, "GM fiat" has been used to indicate the GM "interfering" with player agency. Player agency and GM agency are constantly at interplay during a game session -- that's what gaming is. Even in solo games, where the same person is a player and the GM, it's the interplay between those agencies that defines the gameplay -- usually there's some randomization method used to produce more unexpected GM elements, but it's still "GM agency." When you played a solo gamebook and "cheated" because a choice led you to a game-ending conclusion, you were interfering with "GM agency" via player fiat -- it was "you-as-GM" providing an input ("You die!") and you-as-player subverting that ("Uh... no, I meant, 'I don't take the Ruby of Ruin from the altar!'")
In my understanding, "GM fiat" has been used to indicate the GM "interfering" with player agency. Player agency and GM agency are constantly at interplay during a game session -- that's what gaming is. Even in solo games, where the same person is a player and the GM, it's the interplay between those agencies that defines the gameplay -- usually there's some randomization method used to produce more unexpected GM elements, but it's still "GM agency." When you played a solo gamebook and "cheated" because a choice led you to a game-ending conclusion, you were interfering with "GM agency" via player fiat -- it was "you-as-GM" providing an input ("You die!") and you-as-player subverting that ("Uh... no, I meant, 'I don't take the Ruby of Ruin from the altar!'")
RealAlHazred
Frumious Flumph (Your Grace/Your Eminence)
And I see I posted that in the wrong place.
This is what I get for limiting my normal participation to this thread, and not the rest of the forums...
This is what I get for limiting my normal participation to this thread, and not the rest of the forums...
I was reading that and thinking that there were reasons I was staying out of that thread.
RealAlHazred
Frumious Flumph (Your Grace/Your Eminence)
Yeah, maybe I'll just leave it where it is, for my own sanity...I was reading that and thinking that there were reasons I was staying out of that thread.
Makes sense. I mean, I don't disagree hard with what you're saying, but that thread is a fustercluck.
CleverNickName
Limit Break Dancing (He/They)
I know right? I've visited that thread a couple of times and tried to pick up on the discussion, but it's impossible. Nothing but broad generalizations and adamant declarations. Nobody wants to listen, they just want to be told they are correct.
Bedrockgames
I post in the voice of Christopher Walken
It is a worthwhile comment so you should post it in that thread
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