Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="fusangite" data-source="post: 1095733" data-attributes="member: 7240">Being a good GM is about giving your characters a meaningful sense of free will and the belief that their actions will affect the outcome of the game. However, which body of rules you use will dramatically affect how you can make this free will manifest.When I want to run games wherein theme is a strong element, plot immunity is an important principle and the players feel that they are shaping a real narrative, I do not use D&D. The rules are simply too ill-suited for such games and better rules are available in their stead. So, I understand the type of game you're talking about -- ones in which the thematic and plot elements are damaged by the unexpected death of a PC or major NPC; the majority of games I have run in my 18 years as a GM fall into this category. However, I would never use D&D to run such a game.The way my players experience free will in D&D is understanding that a lucky roll, clever anticipation of an NPC's actions or a well-planned strategy can surprise the DM, potentially kill off bad guys before their plans can mature and give the players a real sense of narrative control. The flip side of that is that NPCs are realistically trying to outwit the PCs, cobbling together new plans, making surprise attacks, rolling with the punches and posing a genuine threat to the lives of the PCs. Neither type of gaming is "better" but it is my view that some game systems are better suited to theme-heavy narrative games while others, such as D&D, are better suited to adversarial play. In D&D, the actions of the characters determine whether something can happen; in other rules-light, strongly narrative systems, the actions of the characters determine on what terms something can happen.</blockquote>

Verification