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

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Ilbranteloth" data-source="post: 7169365" data-attributes="member: 6778044">So the reason why Tony doesn't seem to like labels is that they often come across as derogatory. I personally don't have a problem with labels themselves. It's really a matter of agreeing on a term and definition.To you "Big DM" is about the game after it begins. To me, "Big DM" would refer to the amount of influence the DM has as a whole (before and during the game). Or to put it a different way, how much the DM restricts the options, decisions, and actions of the players/characters.So when a "Big DM" improvises on the fly new content, they aren't restricting the options of the characters. Instead of saying, "no, you can't do that" it's "OK, you can try to do that, and I need to have an answer if it works." It's the DM interacting with the world in response to the player's choice or actions. That seems much less intrusive, much less "Big DM" than, "no, you can't go there" or whatever.These concepts are complex, and I don't want people to start reading into that that I don't think the DM should ever say no. One of the other current recommendations I see popping up frequently is, "The DM should say Yes" approach. The problem with most of the blog posts I've read is that they leave out the part that, "yes, you can try it, but there's a very low likelihood of success, or the risk of failure is high and the consequences severe," or many other variations.As you've said, "everything" is dependent upon the planning. In my campaign I'd say that includes things like the basic relationships between the races, knowing some of the more prominent plots and schemes, and other setting/story-based stuff that makes it possible to make a good judgement call if/when the time comes. Kind of like an umpire learning what the strike zone is, and practicing how to see a 90 mph ball pass through it. That way, when it comes to game time, you can do your job.So personally, the labels don't bother me. But it appears there is a lot of baggage tied to a lot of them, which makes it more difficult to insult somebody without meaning to. So maybe we have to explain something a bit more clearly? I don't know, it seems like a good percentage of the time that's not always working for me either.</blockquote>

Verification