Menu
News
All News
Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
Pathfinder
Starfinder
Warhammer
2d20 System
Year Zero Engine
Industry News
Reviews
Dragon 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 Next
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!
Twitch
YouTube
Facebook (EN Publishing)
Facebook (EN World)
Twitter
Instagram
TikTok
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
The
VOIDRUNNER'S CODEX
is LIVE! Explore new worlds, fight oppressive empires, fend off fearsome aliens, and wield deadly psionics with this comprehensive boxed set expansion for 5E and A5E!
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="Emerikol" data-source="post: 8239566" data-attributes="member: 6698278"><p>Trying to follow the thread and recent derailment into Epistemology.</p><p></p><p>I do believe there is a language that develops for communicating what the GM knows to the player in such a way that the character can now act in a way as if the character knew all along what a character should know in the situation.</p><p></p><p>I don't have a term for such words but they do facilitate communication. For example, we have hit points that conveys, perhaps in a pretty abstract and low realism way, the overall condition of the character. The character acts on that knowledge. Hit points are a shorthand way of communicating the info to the character via the player. The game typically provides some of these words to aid in communication.</p><p></p><p>When a player says his character carefully searches around the door for traps, the GM might answer "you find nothing of significance". Now it's a given there could have been a lot to describe. You could have went into the type of wood or the cracks in the stone, whatever. You typically don't unless the player via the character pushes harder for more information.</p><p></p><p>So a GM will describe sufficiently and the player will fill in the details for the character. Where this goes wrong is when the GM leaves something out that was significant or the player put something in that really wasn't there per the GM. So this means of communicating is a skill and an experienced GM will do a better job of heading off issues as he gets more experienced.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Emerikol, post: 8239566, member: 6698278"] Trying to follow the thread and recent derailment into Epistemology. I do believe there is a language that develops for communicating what the GM knows to the player in such a way that the character can now act in a way as if the character knew all along what a character should know in the situation. I don't have a term for such words but they do facilitate communication. For example, we have hit points that conveys, perhaps in a pretty abstract and low realism way, the overall condition of the character. The character acts on that knowledge. Hit points are a shorthand way of communicating the info to the character via the player. The game typically provides some of these words to aid in communication. When a player says his character carefully searches around the door for traps, the GM might answer "you find nothing of significance". Now it's a given there could have been a lot to describe. You could have went into the type of wood or the cracks in the stone, whatever. You typically don't unless the player via the character pushes harder for more information. So a GM will describe sufficiently and the player will fill in the details for the character. Where this goes wrong is when the GM leaves something out that was significant or the player put something in that really wasn't there per the GM. So this means of communicating is a skill and an experienced GM will do a better job of heading off issues as he gets more experienced. [/QUOTE]
Insert quotes…
Verification
Post reply
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*TTRPGs General
What is the point of GM's notes?
Top