Menu
News
All News
Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
Pathfinder
Starfinder
Warhammer
2d20 System
Year Zero Engine
Industry News
Reviews
Dragon Reflections
Columns
Weekly Digests
Weekly News Digest
Freebies, Sales & Bundles
RPG Print News
RPG Crowdfunding News
Game Content
ENterplanetary DimENsions
Mythological Figures
Opinion
Worlds of Design
Peregrine's Next
RPG Evolution
Other Columns
From the Freelancing Frontline
Monster ENcyclopedia
WotC/TSR Alumni Look Back
4 Hours w/RSD (Ryan Dancey)
The Road to 3E (Jonathan Tweet)
Greenwood's Realms (Ed Greenwood)
Drawmij's TSR (Jim Ward)
Community
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Resources
Wiki
Pages
Latest activity
Media
New media
New comments
Search media
Downloads
Latest reviews
Search resources
EN Publishing
Store
EN5ider
Adventures in ZEITGEIST
Awfully Cheerful Engine
What's OLD is NEW
Judge Dredd & The Worlds Of 2000AD
War of the Burning Sky
Level Up: Advanced 5E
Events & Releases
Upcoming Events
Private Events
Featured Events
Socials!
Twitch
YouTube
Facebook (EN Publishing)
Facebook (EN World)
Twitter
Instagram
TikTok
Podcast
Features
Top 5 RPGs Compiled Charts 2004-Present
Adventure Game Industry Market Research Summary (RPGs) V1.0
Ryan Dancey: Acquiring TSR
Q&A With Gary Gygax
D&D Rules FAQs
TSR, WotC, & Paizo: A Comparative History
D&D Pronunciation Guide
Million Dollar TTRPG Kickstarters
Tabletop RPG Podcast Hall of Fame
Eric Noah's Unofficial D&D 3rd Edition News
D&D in the Mainstream
D&D & RPG History
About Morrus
Log in
Register
What's new
Search
Search
Search titles only
By:
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Menu
Log in
Register
Install the app
Install
The
VOIDRUNNER'S CODEX
is LIVE! Explore new worlds, fight oppressive empires, fend off fearsome aliens, and wield deadly psionics with this comprehensive boxed set expansion for 5E and A5E!
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
Pros and Cons of going mainstream
JavaScript is disabled. For a better experience, please enable JavaScript in your browser before proceeding.
You are using an out of date browser. It may not display this or other websites correctly.
You should upgrade or use an
alternative browser
.
Reply to thread
Message
<blockquote data-quote="pemerton" data-source="post: 6127435" data-attributes="member: 42582"><p>Well, if you are not going to post what a "DM-empowered" game looks like, I am stuck with trying to draw inferences.</p><p></p><p></p><p>As best I can tell, you are describing in these remarks one feature of a "DM-empowered" game, namely, GM control over introduction of story elements, and of mechanical elements of PC build. That was my first and fifth dot points.</p><p></p><p>"DM owning of the campaign" might also imply GM control over campaign storyline, which goes to my third dot point.</p><p></p><p>This also seems to me to be a description, by you, of another feature of a "DM-empowered" game. It seems to correspond to my fouth dot point - namely, that if there are encounter-building guidelines, the GM is free to ignore them.</p><p></p><p>So it's not clear to me, at this stage, in what way my dot points involved misinterpretation. It would be clearer if you actually said a bit more about what constitutes a "DM-empowered" game, and what the role of the players is in such a game. For instance, what role do the players in such a game have in introducing story elements? In contributing mechanical elements, and/or adjudicating the mechanics? In setting goals for their PCs which, if they accomplish them, can earn metagame rewards like XP?</p><p></p><p>That last thing, in my view, has a long tradition in D&D. For instance, Gygax makes it completely clear in his PHB that players are expected to set treasure-recovery goals for their PCs, and his DMG makes it clear that they are entitled to metagame rewards - XP - for recovering treasure. Does this mean that Gygaxian D&D is "dis-empowering" of the GM?</p><p></p><p>When has that <em>ever</em> been acceptable in tournament play?</p><p></p><p>Back in my university days I ran a tournament scenario - it involved 20+ players with pregen PCs in a series of interlocking scenarion "zones". Each zone had its own GM; one of the GMs imposed his own judgement on the particular zone he was GMing, adding abilities to one of the NPCs (a lich) which were not in the encounter description I had prepared. As a result, those players who ended up in that zone had no chance of winning the tournament, as they could not escape from this GM's free-formed challenge. That's not "empowered DMing", that's just breaking the rules of the competition.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="pemerton, post: 6127435, member: 42582"] Well, if you are not going to post what a "DM-empowered" game looks like, I am stuck with trying to draw inferences. As best I can tell, you are describing in these remarks one feature of a "DM-empowered" game, namely, GM control over introduction of story elements, and of mechanical elements of PC build. That was my first and fifth dot points. "DM owning of the campaign" might also imply GM control over campaign storyline, which goes to my third dot point. This also seems to me to be a description, by you, of another feature of a "DM-empowered" game. It seems to correspond to my fouth dot point - namely, that if there are encounter-building guidelines, the GM is free to ignore them. So it's not clear to me, at this stage, in what way my dot points involved misinterpretation. It would be clearer if you actually said a bit more about what constitutes a "DM-empowered" game, and what the role of the players is in such a game. For instance, what role do the players in such a game have in introducing story elements? In contributing mechanical elements, and/or adjudicating the mechanics? In setting goals for their PCs which, if they accomplish them, can earn metagame rewards like XP? That last thing, in my view, has a long tradition in D&D. For instance, Gygax makes it completely clear in his PHB that players are expected to set treasure-recovery goals for their PCs, and his DMG makes it clear that they are entitled to metagame rewards - XP - for recovering treasure. Does this mean that Gygaxian D&D is "dis-empowering" of the GM? When has that [I]ever[/I] been acceptable in tournament play? Back in my university days I ran a tournament scenario - it involved 20+ players with pregen PCs in a series of interlocking scenarion "zones". Each zone had its own GM; one of the GMs imposed his own judgement on the particular zone he was GMing, adding abilities to one of the NPCs (a lich) which were not in the encounter description I had prepared. As a result, those players who ended up in that zone had no chance of winning the tournament, as they could not escape from this GM's free-formed challenge. That's not "empowered DMing", that's just breaking the rules of the competition. [/QUOTE]
Insert quotes…
Verification
Post reply
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
Pros and Cons of going mainstream
Top