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What is the point of GM's notes?
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<blockquote data-quote="Ovinomancer" data-source="post: 8240532" data-attributes="member: 16814"><p>[USER=7029930]@AnotherGuy[/USER] </p><p></p><p>I followed the subtext of your question, but I dislike rhetorical questions where the questioner doesn't provide what they think the answer should be. Clearly, you're asking if the question has any merit to improve the craft of GMing, and, if you think it does not, or is ill posed, then I think you're missing a critical thrust of what it means to actually analyze your play. A similar question was instrumental for me to better understand how I play and helped me improve my craft in a number of styles.</p><p></p><p>I've talked about how I'm currently running an AP. I have a rather detailed set of notes for this game, in addition to the AP notes I also have all of Forgotten Realms lore to lean on. What does this do for me? A number of things, if I look at it critically. The background lore provides me with a solid structure with which to paint the world the PCs inhabit -- I can lean on it to provide details and coherence and even drop easter eggs for lore enthusiasts (I have one). But, this isn't the extent of the notes for this AP. I also have encounters, location, mysteries, and story notes. And these require serious review and consideration, because I need to make sure that these align with the play goals of my table, and they really don't for any table. This is because these notes are provided in a way that doesn't really have a coherent play agenda in mind -- there's some skilled play, some fuzzy-GM-interaction-as-roleplay, some exposition dumps, some Illusionism, and some outright Force (where the module tells you X happens no matter what, and gives ways of enforcing X happening). So, how are these notes used in play? Differently for each table, really, as they're meant to be modified (an approach I find somewhat disingenuous to the stated purpose of an AP -- easy, prepared play). Understanding how you use notes in various ways -- how notes inform and direct play -- is critical to getting the best out of an AP -- to align it to what you want at your table. If you want all skilled play, you'll have to make adjustments to do so, because the AP isn't all skilled play. If you want a mix, you'll have to adjust to make sure you get what you want where you want. You can do what's often done, here, and peruse many threads and blogs worth of how other people did this work and provided results, and just pick the ones that speak to you, but then you see people complain that such-and-such didn't work for them so others should avoid it because it's bad advice. This is, fundamentally, a failure to understand how notes work in your game -- how the plan translates to play in a pleasing manner.</p><p></p><p>So, if you're actually asking how the question of how you use the GM's notes in play can improve your craft, I'd say you've missed a pretty big part of how analysis of play works.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Ovinomancer, post: 8240532, member: 16814"] [USER=7029930]@AnotherGuy[/USER] I followed the subtext of your question, but I dislike rhetorical questions where the questioner doesn't provide what they think the answer should be. Clearly, you're asking if the question has any merit to improve the craft of GMing, and, if you think it does not, or is ill posed, then I think you're missing a critical thrust of what it means to actually analyze your play. A similar question was instrumental for me to better understand how I play and helped me improve my craft in a number of styles. I've talked about how I'm currently running an AP. I have a rather detailed set of notes for this game, in addition to the AP notes I also have all of Forgotten Realms lore to lean on. What does this do for me? A number of things, if I look at it critically. The background lore provides me with a solid structure with which to paint the world the PCs inhabit -- I can lean on it to provide details and coherence and even drop easter eggs for lore enthusiasts (I have one). But, this isn't the extent of the notes for this AP. I also have encounters, location, mysteries, and story notes. And these require serious review and consideration, because I need to make sure that these align with the play goals of my table, and they really don't for any table. This is because these notes are provided in a way that doesn't really have a coherent play agenda in mind -- there's some skilled play, some fuzzy-GM-interaction-as-roleplay, some exposition dumps, some Illusionism, and some outright Force (where the module tells you X happens no matter what, and gives ways of enforcing X happening). So, how are these notes used in play? Differently for each table, really, as they're meant to be modified (an approach I find somewhat disingenuous to the stated purpose of an AP -- easy, prepared play). Understanding how you use notes in various ways -- how notes inform and direct play -- is critical to getting the best out of an AP -- to align it to what you want at your table. If you want all skilled play, you'll have to make adjustments to do so, because the AP isn't all skilled play. If you want a mix, you'll have to adjust to make sure you get what you want where you want. You can do what's often done, here, and peruse many threads and blogs worth of how other people did this work and provided results, and just pick the ones that speak to you, but then you see people complain that such-and-such didn't work for them so others should avoid it because it's bad advice. This is, fundamentally, a failure to understand how notes work in your game -- how the plan translates to play in a pleasing manner. So, if you're actually asking how the question of how you use the GM's notes in play can improve your craft, I'd say you've missed a pretty big part of how analysis of play works. [/QUOTE]
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