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Respect Mah Authoritah: Thoughts on DM and Player Authority in 5e
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<blockquote data-quote="pemerton" data-source="post: 8432170" data-attributes="member: 42582"><p>I don't think your spectrum is useful at all, for the reasons I posted upthread.</p><p></p><p>Apocalypse World and Burning Wheel (to pick two examples) are not sandbox RPGs. They do not give the GM primary authority over backstory in the fashion typical of a sandbox (especially in Burning Wheel's case). They do not assume that backstory is always or even typically an <em>input</em> into resolution - very often it is an <em>output</em> of resolution (eg a check fails, the GM has to narrate a salient consequence, and to use AW terminology they <em>announce future badness</em> - eg a column of smoke is visible on the horizon - and now we have a new bit of backstory that is still in the process of being authored - what caused the smoke, what problem does it foretell, etc?). And unlike a sandbox, they give the GM stronger authority over establishing situation - ie instead of the players declaring actions that activate situations latent in the prepared backstory, the GM brings the action to the players via (by typical D&D standards) rather pushy framing, which also (by typical D&D standards) is far more responsive to player-announced hooks, and play then proceeds from there.</p><p></p><p>But these are games in which players have far more authority over the direction of the campaign than in typical D&D play, including - based on my experience and observations - many sandboxes.</p><p></p><p>Hence they refute your suggestion that <em>The closer a given campaign is to the sandbox end of this spectrum, the more de facto authority the players have over the direction of the campaign. Conversely, the closer a given campaign is to the opposite end of this spectrum, the less de facto authority the players have over the direction of the campaign.</em></p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="pemerton, post: 8432170, member: 42582"] I don't think your spectrum is useful at all, for the reasons I posted upthread. Apocalypse World and Burning Wheel (to pick two examples) are not sandbox RPGs. They do not give the GM primary authority over backstory in the fashion typical of a sandbox (especially in Burning Wheel's case). They do not assume that backstory is always or even typically an [i]input[/i] into resolution - very often it is an [i]output[/i] of resolution (eg a check fails, the GM has to narrate a salient consequence, and to use AW terminology they [i]announce future badness[/i] - eg a column of smoke is visible on the horizon - and now we have a new bit of backstory that is still in the process of being authored - what caused the smoke, what problem does it foretell, etc?). And unlike a sandbox, they give the GM stronger authority over establishing situation - ie instead of the players declaring actions that activate situations latent in the prepared backstory, the GM brings the action to the players via (by typical D&D standards) rather pushy framing, which also (by typical D&D standards) is far more responsive to player-announced hooks, and play then proceeds from there. But these are games in which players have far more authority over the direction of the campaign than in typical D&D play, including - based on my experience and observations - many sandboxes. Hence they refute your suggestion that [i]The closer a given campaign is to the sandbox end of this spectrum, the more de facto authority the players have over the direction of the campaign. Conversely, the closer a given campaign is to the opposite end of this spectrum, the less de facto authority the players have over the direction of the campaign.[/i] [/QUOTE]
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