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<blockquote data-quote="RealAlHazred" data-source="post: 9620828" data-attributes="member: 25818">I think there's a disconnect between &quot;GM fiat&quot; and &quot;the GM's job&quot; (understanding that it's not actually a job, of course). If I-as-GM describe a town, and they player says, &quot;I'm going to go to the market to buy angel feathers,&quot; it's just my &quot;job&quot; to decide if there's a market. If I decide based on my understanding of demographics (&quot;Well, the town has a population of 500 people, and markets usually exist if there's at least 400, so there probably is&quot;) then that's just my &quot;job.&quot; 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 &quot;GM fiat,&quot; it's still my &quot;job,&quot; it's just a different set of criteria I'm using (besides &quot;demographics&quot;) -- all criteria are arbitrary from one standpoint or another, so it's up to the GM which they use.In my understanding, &quot;GM fiat&quot; has been used to indicate the GM &quot;interfering&quot; 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 &quot;GM agency.&quot; When you played a solo gamebook and &quot;cheated&quot; because a choice led you to a game-ending conclusion, you were interfering with &quot;GM agency&quot; via player fiat -- it was &quot;you-as-GM&quot; providing an input (&quot;You die!&quot;) and you-as-player subverting that (&quot;Uh... no, I meant, 'I don't take the Ruby of Ruin from the altar!'&quot;)</blockquote>

[QUOTE="RealAlHazred, post: 9620828, member: 25818"] I think there's a disconnect between "GM fiat" and "the GM's job" (understanding that it's not [I]actually [/I]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 [B]player fiat[/B] -- it was "you-as-GM" providing an input ("You die!") and you-as-player subverting that ("Uh... no, I meant, 'I [I]don't[/I] take the Ruby of Ruin from the altar!'") [/QUOTE]

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