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Message: <blockquote data-quote="innerdude" data-source="post: 8237124" data-attributes="member: 85870">The big problem for me is what I've bolded in the snippet above---namely, it's almost impossible for me as a GM, even with the absolute best intentions, to remain fully neutral/impartial/fair within all of the parameters available. Whether it be scene framing, adjudicating action, prefabrication of world elements, challenge and combat encounter creation, etc., I always find that inevitably some sort of bias creeps into my decisions. Most of the time, that bias is in favor of the players, but sometimes it's not. Sometimes it's stuff that I just think, "Man, I really really really want the players to see or experience X, because that would be sooooo cool!"And suddenly that desire to have the player experience X becomes this hidden seed that pushes the action. The bolded part here is the problematic component. You keep talking about "the world" as if it operates in some wholly independent sphere of the shared fiction, as if it is possessed of some immutable, objective properties of existence separate from other components of the imagined fiction.This is the whole crux of the argument around how and what player-facing game mechanics are designed to address---that there is no "world," there are only conceptions of the fiction in question. Saying that it's all part of the grand, overarching "natural, simulated world" doesn't give those conceptions any additional weight or gravitas.Honestly, this was one of, if not the biggest mental hurdle for me to get over in regards to knowing how to approach player facing mechanics. Because the "game world" simply had to be this independent construction, operating under its own parameters. How else could anyone know anything about anything if there wasn't an assumed, "fully realized" game world?Until it finally clicked that there is no "world," there are only conceptions of the fiction. Any given conception exists in one of two states---1) something that is already established as true within the fiction state, and 2) things that are proposed to be true, but not yet known to be true (and potentially may end up being false).By default, D&D assumes that a GM's notes / prefabrications / headcanon are conceptions that fall into Category 1 --- "Something already established as true within the fiction," until/unless the GM deems otherwise. The fact that the players don't know about the overwhelming majority of prefabricated "truths" is irrelevant, they're still considered "truth" for the fiction.Category 2 conceptions are generally propositions from the players---"I kill the orc." This isn't known to be true until the game plays out, and the fiction state resolves. It may end up being true---and may end up being false, if the player's dice perform badly, or some other interposition happens first (e.g., the orc successfully runs away or the character trips and falls down).Category 2 conceptions/propositions can be negated. For example, a player can say something as simple as, "Bob the Fighter walks across the room to head toward NotBob the Vile's private dining area." But this can be rendered untrue in any number of ways, e.g.:Player 2: Joe the Wizard grabs Bob the Fighter's arm as soon as he stands up. [in character] 'I don't think you want to mess with NotBob right now, friend. He'll probably kill you.'Or, GM: You go to walk across the room, but the barmaid slips, crashes a tray of empty flagons to the floor, and falls into your arms in disheveled confusion.In both cases, Bob the Fighter has not, in fact, walked across the room to NotBob's private dining area. At least not until the interposed propositions are either accepted or rejected as truth.RPG gameplay is really nothing more than Category 2 conceptions/propositions steadily moving to Category 1---it was unknown if the conception is true, and now it is known to be true or not.The bolded portion of your quote cannot logically follow from the sentences that precede it. A response is necessarily a decision.</blockquote>

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