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What is the point of GM's notes?
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<blockquote data-quote="Bedrockgames" data-source="post: 8240942" data-attributes="member: 85555"><p>'Well in a living world you can do as much or as little as you want away from the characters, every GM is going to have to find the right balance in terms of tracking these things. But I think this highlights where the Feast of Goblyns section becomes quite relevant because that is specifically getting at the idea of the NPCs not simply being in a room waiting for the PCs to show up. I am not saying that is what you are doing in the BitD example, but it is a kind of similar thing where stuff is only happening around the PCs, and if it is only coming online when the PCs become involved with them or show up, it is more like a dungeon where monsters wait for the PCs in a room, or a video game where the challenge is sitting there waiting for them. But the point of running things off screen, isn't to simulate a world the players will never encounter. These things can always become relevant to the party at any point, and when they do, if the players prod at them enough, it is easy for players to sense whether they were held in stasis or things were evolving. As an example you read the paper or the news most likely, even though aren't likely to be hired by the president to go on an adventure or spend any time in the white house (the specific s here obviously may vary from country to country among posters). But you are aware of news far away because it still has local impact. So a simple change in policy in the imperial capital about how the empire will be managing bandits could very easily have a direct impact on the players. Who is on the throne can have an impact. And if the players go to the capital and start talking to the palace Eunuch and ask him what has been going on in the city for the last three years, the players will probably have a good idea if your response sounds like you hadn't tracked any of those details. I am not saying you must track the events of every city in a living world (or that you have to track events in the capital). I am saying when you do, and when you are able to do that, it adds to the campaign, and will likely eventually have some significance to the players (they may not bump into all these details, but some of them will be important). Generally my approach here is to take a very simplified approach (a monthly events table). Having used it, I can assure you it isn't setting solitaire. Things do come up the players never find out about, but other things are surprisingly relevant to the players, inform future adventures and scenarios, and can also become hooks for the party to use as they seek avenues to explore in the campaigns. In a living world the players are supposed to be driving the campaign through the direction the party and the characters choose to go. That is going to mean a lot of unexpected questions around news and rumors as they try to find something that seems worth their time (i.e. what criminal groups are operating in the city and who is the strongest, etc). Any of those questions can be answered with something in stasis, and sometimes out of convenience a living world will answer that sort of question in stasis. But the idea is, once the session begins, the world moves, once the campaign begins the world moves. You don't have to perfectly handle it though. And it may just be a matter of every couple of weeks thinking about major developments in different places in order to provide a senses of a world. Again I don't think this is a requirement of living world. The most important requirement is the NPCs interacting with the players be treated as alive. But the more you can expand outward, the more helpful it can as long as it isn't taking away from other important aspects of the game.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Bedrockgames, post: 8240942, member: 85555"] 'Well in a living world you can do as much or as little as you want away from the characters, every GM is going to have to find the right balance in terms of tracking these things. But I think this highlights where the Feast of Goblyns section becomes quite relevant because that is specifically getting at the idea of the NPCs not simply being in a room waiting for the PCs to show up. I am not saying that is what you are doing in the BitD example, but it is a kind of similar thing where stuff is only happening around the PCs, and if it is only coming online when the PCs become involved with them or show up, it is more like a dungeon where monsters wait for the PCs in a room, or a video game where the challenge is sitting there waiting for them. But the point of running things off screen, isn't to simulate a world the players will never encounter. These things can always become relevant to the party at any point, and when they do, if the players prod at them enough, it is easy for players to sense whether they were held in stasis or things were evolving. As an example you read the paper or the news most likely, even though aren't likely to be hired by the president to go on an adventure or spend any time in the white house (the specific s here obviously may vary from country to country among posters). But you are aware of news far away because it still has local impact. So a simple change in policy in the imperial capital about how the empire will be managing bandits could very easily have a direct impact on the players. Who is on the throne can have an impact. And if the players go to the capital and start talking to the palace Eunuch and ask him what has been going on in the city for the last three years, the players will probably have a good idea if your response sounds like you hadn't tracked any of those details. I am not saying you must track the events of every city in a living world (or that you have to track events in the capital). I am saying when you do, and when you are able to do that, it adds to the campaign, and will likely eventually have some significance to the players (they may not bump into all these details, but some of them will be important). Generally my approach here is to take a very simplified approach (a monthly events table). Having used it, I can assure you it isn't setting solitaire. Things do come up the players never find out about, but other things are surprisingly relevant to the players, inform future adventures and scenarios, and can also become hooks for the party to use as they seek avenues to explore in the campaigns. In a living world the players are supposed to be driving the campaign through the direction the party and the characters choose to go. That is going to mean a lot of unexpected questions around news and rumors as they try to find something that seems worth their time (i.e. what criminal groups are operating in the city and who is the strongest, etc). Any of those questions can be answered with something in stasis, and sometimes out of convenience a living world will answer that sort of question in stasis. But the idea is, once the session begins, the world moves, once the campaign begins the world moves. You don't have to perfectly handle it though. And it may just be a matter of every couple of weeks thinking about major developments in different places in order to provide a senses of a world. Again I don't think this is a requirement of living world. The most important requirement is the NPCs interacting with the players be treated as alive. But the more you can expand outward, the more helpful it can as long as it isn't taking away from other important aspects of the game. [/QUOTE]
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