Menu
News
All News
Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
Pathfinder
Starfinder
Warhammer
2d20 System
Year Zero Engine
Industry News
Reviews
Dragon Reflections
White Dwarf 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 Nest
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!
EN Publishing
Twitter
BlueSky
Facebook
Instagram
EN World
BlueSky
YouTube
Facebook
Twitter
Twitch
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
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*TTRPGs General
What is the point of GM's notes?
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="Manbearcat" data-source="post: 8232651" data-attributes="member: 6696971"><p>I've posted a lot of stuff in this thread, but I'm pretty confident this was another thing I posted about.</p><p></p><p>There are multiple forms of Adventure Path or Metaplot-driven play.</p><p></p><p>Two of those forms are, in fact, Railroads. The point of play is for it to be a Railroad. We (the cultural "we" here) would do ourselves a service if we just admitted what it is and that (a) its not a degenerate form of play in and of itself (its only degenerate if its represented as something else and/or the participants are expecting a different form of play), (b) therefore calling it a "Railroad" is not pernicious, (c) it is (in fact) desirable for a large number of players, (d) so therefore it would behoove us to talk plainly about it so GMs can improve their craft.</p><p></p><p>One of those two forms is basically a passive, theatrical experience for the players where funneled play triggers prescripted exposition dumps. In this case, GMs need to be good at (i) funneling toward that prescription, (ii) knowing when the prescripted exposition dump is triggered, and (iii) theatrically delivering the triggered exposition dump.</p><p></p><p>The second of those two forms is Adventure Path as Skilled Play (similar to Gloomhaven or a CRPG). Teams play through the AP in basically a "keep score" fashion (even if they're just "keeping score" with their expectation of self). In this form of play the GM needs to be good at (i) - (iii) above though the expectation of theatricality is comparatively muted. Less important than theatricality in exposition is (iv) the ability to deliver the puzzle/obstacle information sufficiently (revealing enough but not leading in a way that impacts Skilled Play) and (v) play "Team NPC" aggressively but fairly. (iv) and (v) become even more important if this is a tourney-esque scenario (like at a Hobby Shop) where you're going to run multiple Teams through it and they can compare and contrast their success (their "Score").</p><p></p><p></p><p>These are two discrete forms of play that are very <em>"reveal what is in the GM's notes"-intensive.</em></p><p></p><p>Not all notes are like this or for this...but these two forms of play are orthodox D&D (there are other forms of D&D, but these aren't remotely deviant forms of D&D...they're everywhere).</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Manbearcat, post: 8232651, member: 6696971"] I've posted a lot of stuff in this thread, but I'm pretty confident this was another thing I posted about. There are multiple forms of Adventure Path or Metaplot-driven play. Two of those forms are, in fact, Railroads. The point of play is for it to be a Railroad. We (the cultural "we" here) would do ourselves a service if we just admitted what it is and that (a) its not a degenerate form of play in and of itself (its only degenerate if its represented as something else and/or the participants are expecting a different form of play), (b) therefore calling it a "Railroad" is not pernicious, (c) it is (in fact) desirable for a large number of players, (d) so therefore it would behoove us to talk plainly about it so GMs can improve their craft. One of those two forms is basically a passive, theatrical experience for the players where funneled play triggers prescripted exposition dumps. In this case, GMs need to be good at (i) funneling toward that prescription, (ii) knowing when the prescripted exposition dump is triggered, and (iii) theatrically delivering the triggered exposition dump. The second of those two forms is Adventure Path as Skilled Play (similar to Gloomhaven or a CRPG). Teams play through the AP in basically a "keep score" fashion (even if they're just "keeping score" with their expectation of self). In this form of play the GM needs to be good at (i) - (iii) above though the expectation of theatricality is comparatively muted. Less important than theatricality in exposition is (iv) the ability to deliver the puzzle/obstacle information sufficiently (revealing enough but not leading in a way that impacts Skilled Play) and (v) play "Team NPC" aggressively but fairly. (iv) and (v) become even more important if this is a tourney-esque scenario (like at a Hobby Shop) where you're going to run multiple Teams through it and they can compare and contrast their success (their "Score"). These are two discrete forms of play that are very [I]"reveal what is in the GM's notes"-intensive.[/I] Not all notes are like this or for this...but these two forms of play are orthodox D&D (there are other forms of D&D, but these aren't remotely deviant forms of D&D...they're everywhere). [/QUOTE]
Insert quotes…
Verification
Post reply
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*TTRPGs General
What is the point of GM's notes?
Top