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Message: <blockquote data-quote="darkbard" data-source="post: 7732427" data-attributes="member: 1282">Pretty much exactly the role described throughout this thread by [MENTION=42582]pemerton[/MENTION] (and elucidated at times by [MENTION=6696971]Manbearcat[/MENTION]): frame the PCs into scenes signaled by their character builds and stated goals and motivations, adjudicate the result of PC failure according to the mechanics of the game system, etc.I should note that I haven't always GMed in such a fashion. I've been gaming for some 35 years, and for the bulk of that time I knew no other way to play than through GM-driven plotlines, etc. It wasn't until I encountered an alternative vision of what RPGing could be via the influence of the "indie game" movement that I saw the possibilities opened up by reducing the "M" in GMing to a misnomer. Refereeing is a far more apt term in my opinion.Just as one would say no sport is about the referees(s), despite their crucial role, but about the players, so too could RPGing be made in such a mold. But the kind of GMing I had done before my "conversion moment" was, indeed, about the GM and my vision of play (running APs, building mysteries for the PCs to solve according to preset information, etc.). Inevitably, though, I would run into problems when the goals of the player ran contrary or orthogonal to what I had preplanned, which opened up the can of worms of railroading the PCs back into the story in clever ways or forcing, in hamhanded fashion, their storylines into my own.The posts of [MENTION=42582]pemerton[/MENTION] and [MENTION=6696971]Manbearcat[/MENTION] (and a few others) opened my eyes, though, to a form of gaming where all participants, the GM included, are equal participants in the narrative; where the GM too plays to find out what will happen, not simply reveal his already predetermined narrative to the players; and I haven't looked back since. Again, this is not to say that this way is inherently better than other forms of gaming; clearly others prefer other ways to play. I think it is better, but that's a matter of preference. I also think it's ultimately more democratic, which makes for more appealing interpersonal dynamics, but, again, that too may be a matter of taste.But when [MENTION=29398]Lanefan[/MENTION] and [MENTION=6775031]Saelorn[/MENTION] deny that such gaming is possible (or practical, whatever that means in this context) or that it is even RPGing, I simply say, as [MENTION=42582]pemerton[/MENTION] and [MENTION=6696971]Manbearcat[/MENTION] already have before me, the facts speak otherwise.</blockquote>

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