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<blockquote data-quote="pemerton" data-source="post: 8236479" data-attributes="member: 42582">The difference is between stuff only the GM knows because it's in his/her notes and stuff that the GM makes up by extrapolating from those notes and stuff that a participant in the game (player, or GM) extrapolates from the shared fiction which has (ipso facto, given it's shared) been established at the table in the course of play.The difference is brought out clearly in [USER=16814]@Ovinomancer[/USER]'s post not far upthread, which sets out an imagined example of a player, in character, asking a barkeep about NotBob the Vile.One possibility: the GM answers by referring to his/her notes, or extrapolating from them.Another possibility: the GM answers by fist having the player make a Streetwise (or Barkeep-wise, or NotBob the Vile-wise, or &lt;whatever is appropriate&gt;) check, and then if that succeeds narrating the barkeep's helpful answer that leads to the PC to NotBob the Vile, or if that fails narrating some appropriate complication or obstacle that flows from the established fiction.Only the first possibility constrains the outcomes of action declarations by reference to material that only the GM is privy to. This is one function that GM's notes can serve, and I think it's a pretty well-known function. It produces a different RPG experience from RPGing (such as [USER=85870]@innerdude[/USER] was describing upthread) where there is no such use of GM's notes, and other techniques are used to determine the outcomes of action declarations.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="pemerton, post: 8236479, member: 42582"] The difference is between [I]stuff only the GM knows because it's in his/her notes[/I] and [I]stuff that the GM makes up by extrapolating from those notes[/I] and [I]stuff that a participant in the game (player, or GM) extrapolates from the shared fiction which has (ipso facto, given it's shared) been established at the table in the course of play[/I]. The difference is brought out clearly in [USER=16814]@Ovinomancer[/USER]'s post not far upthread, which sets out an imagined example of a player, in character, asking a barkeep about NotBob the Vile. One possibility: the GM answers by referring to his/her notes, or extrapolating from them. Another possibility: the GM answers by fist having the player make a Streetwise (or Barkeep-wise, or NotBob the Vile-wise, or <whatever is appropriate>) check, and then if that succeeds narrating the barkeep's helpful answer that leads to the PC to NotBob the Vile, or if that fails narrating some appropriate complication or obstacle that flows from the established fiction. Only the first possibility constrains the outcomes of action declarations by reference to material that only the GM is privy to. This is one function that GM's notes can serve, and I think it's a pretty well-known function. It produces a different RPG experience from RPGing (such as [USER=85870]@innerdude[/USER] was describing upthread) where there is no such use of GM's notes, and other techniques are used to determine the outcomes of action declarations. [/QUOTE]

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