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Message: <blockquote data-quote="pemerton" data-source="post: 4334143" data-attributes="member: 42582">There are many games in which what you call "rude" or "bad character play" is an integral part of the action resolution mechanics. Now you may prefer not to call these games RPGs, but most players of them would call them RPGs, and they market themselves as RPGs, and they are sold in shops in the RPG section.This is a complete red herring. It is no part of a game like HeroWars that sword swings arbitrarily and at a player's whim bring down meteor showers.This is another red herring. It is no part of a game like D&D that the GM is allowed to vary the parameters of a challenge based on his or her personal affection for a particular player. But it does not follow from any requirement of impartiality, or of consistency with what has gone before, that the world dictates the difficulty of any challenge. This has to be decided, and the typical decision-maker in D&D play is the GM.Suppose the GM writes down the details of the challenge ahead of time, and then describes that to the players. Or suppose the GM (who, like me, does not have much prep time outside of sessions) makes up the details as s/he goes along. What difference does it make? Either way the GM used his or her authority to dictate a certain state of the world. This is what I'm pretty sure everyone in this thread with whom you are arguing means when they talk about the GM exercising narrative authority.A couple of online dictionaries give the following meanings for "narration": "an account", "a message that tells the particulars of an act or occurrence or course of events". "Narration" can also be used to refer to the act of producing such an account or such a message.When the GM is describing the gameworld to the players, s/he is giving an account of certain events or occurences (eg "It is raining", "In the distance a range of mountains is visible"). When the player's describe their PC's actions they are also giving an account of certain events or occurences (eg "I reach for a handhold on the wall", "I swing my sword at the orc".)I don't think that it's very controversial to describe this sort of language, or the act of producing it, as narration. And RPGing is full of such activity. In my experience, one of the first things that a non-RPGer notices when s/he stumbles onto an RPG session (after the dice and paper) is that the game seems to consist mostly of giving accounts of various imaginary events and occurences.</blockquote>

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