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<blockquote data-quote="Bedrockgames" data-source="post: 8243754" data-attributes="member: 85555"><p>I don't think this level of zoom is going to be very fruitful because in my view it is distorting what is going on. I am fairly skeptical of this approach helping to shed light on the importance of GMs notes, the role of GMs notes in a living sandbox, or helping to explain what a living world is. For example, I can zoom in on a melody and see an interval, and say &quot;it is just one note going to another&quot; but that misses the point of patterning scales and harmonizing chords. You could say it is just the guitar player for example deciding which note to play. But it isn't just that because I am beholden to the context, and if you carry that into an RPG, the context is the living world in this case. The GM isn't simply deciding what happens: the GM is deciding what a given NPC does, or how an aspect of the setting responds to player choices. And it is often mediated by dice rolls. The context (all the choices the PCs, NPCs, factions have made, etc.....this is a bit like the surrounding harmonies, rhythm, etc guiding the guitar player's choices. The GM is not 'the decider': in a good living world sandbox, the GM is constrained in many ways. The one way they are not generally constrained though is by out of character, PC choices or contributions (though there is flexibility there). It is a lot like Fenris was saying: the GM is prepping pieces but doesn't really know how things will pan out until play beings and those pieces and the players begin doing things.</p></blockquote><p></p>

[QUOTE="Bedrockgames, post: 8243754, member: 85555"] I don't think this level of zoom is going to be very fruitful because in my view it is distorting what is going on. I am fairly skeptical of this approach helping to shed light on the importance of GMs notes, the role of GMs notes in a living sandbox, or helping to explain what a living world is. For example, I can zoom in on a melody and see an interval, and say "it is just one note going to another" but that misses the point of patterning scales and harmonizing chords. You could say it is just the guitar player for example deciding which note to play. But it isn't just that because I am beholden to the context, and if you carry that into an RPG, the context is the living world in this case. The GM isn't simply deciding what happens: the GM is deciding what a given NPC does, or how an aspect of the setting responds to player choices. And it is often mediated by dice rolls. The context (all the choices the PCs, NPCs, factions have made, etc.....this is a bit like the surrounding harmonies, rhythm, etc guiding the guitar player's choices. The GM is not 'the decider': in a good living world sandbox, the GM is constrained in many ways. The one way they are not generally constrained though is by out of character, PC choices or contributions (though there is flexibility there). It is a lot like Fenris was saying: the GM is prepping pieces but doesn't really know how things will pan out until play beings and those pieces and the players begin doing things. [/QUOTE]

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