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What is the point of GM's notes?
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<blockquote data-quote="pemerton" data-source="post: 8245125" data-attributes="member: 42582"><p>I don't understand why you assert the bolded bit.</p><p></p><p>I think it's very common in RPGing for the GM to not know an answer to a question before it is asked. The GM then makes up an answer, having regard to whatever constraints the system and the context require. For instance, in my most recent Traveller session the PCs travelled to a gas giant moon that they knew to have been of interest to psionically-inclined aliens 2 billion years ago. I therefore had to narrate something about the moon. Here's how I did that:</p><p></p><p></p><p>I didn't know this in advance. I made it up on the spot. And then told the players. There was probably some back-and-forth in that - one of the players is an engineer who sometimes winces at my "science" - but the quoted passage gives the gist.</p><p></p><p>In the same session, one of the PCs, Alissa, was put on trial by the NPC Toru von Taxiwan. The trial was being held inside a pinnace - a small spacefaring vessel with capacity for 8 passengers/crew. Here's how that unfolded:</p><p></p><p></p><p>The description began with me. But it was Alissa's player who established that Alissa went to the bridge when she spoke in her defence, after having first established that she could speak in her defence. I went along with all of this as GM: I had no prior conception of how a Taxiwanian trial would proceed.</p><p></p><p>The bit about the moon I would count as an instance of <em>the players learning what is in the GM's notes</em>. The bit about the trial I would not.</p><p></p><p></p><p>Obviously the players in my Traveller game might change the fiction, in the sense that (eg) they could use their starship beam lasers to destroy some or even all of the mining structures. (They probably can't change the orbit or volcanic character of the moon). In the case of the trial they did change the fiction - the player had his PC blow everyone else up with a concealed grenade. This was in fact why he wanted to establish that he went to the front of the pinnace.</p><p></p><p>But changing the established fiction (which I think is what you mean - as opposed to <em>adding </em>to it as happened in the play of the trial) requires the fiction to be established. And that has to come from someone.</p><p></p><p></p><p>I find it hard to tell. I get the feeling that your play might be similar to [USER=23751]@Maxperson[/USER]'s, though I think you are a bit more self-conscious about techniques. I think both of you are different from [USER=85555]@Bedrockgames[/USER] who is in turn, I think, different from [USER=6698278]@Emerikol[/USER]. But those are just impressions formed on a very thin evidence base.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="pemerton, post: 8245125, member: 42582"] I don't understand why you assert the bolded bit. I think it's very common in RPGing for the GM to not know an answer to a question before it is asked. The GM then makes up an answer, having regard to whatever constraints the system and the context require. For instance, in my most recent Traveller session the PCs travelled to a gas giant moon that they knew to have been of interest to psionically-inclined aliens 2 billion years ago. I therefore had to narrate something about the moon. Here's how I did that: I didn't know this in advance. I made it up on the spot. And then told the players. There was probably some back-and-forth in that - one of the players is an engineer who sometimes winces at my "science" - but the quoted passage gives the gist. In the same session, one of the PCs, Alissa, was put on trial by the NPC Toru von Taxiwan. The trial was being held inside a pinnace - a small spacefaring vessel with capacity for 8 passengers/crew. Here's how that unfolded: The description began with me. But it was Alissa's player who established that Alissa went to the bridge when she spoke in her defence, after having first established that she could speak in her defence. I went along with all of this as GM: I had no prior conception of how a Taxiwanian trial would proceed. The bit about the moon I would count as an instance of [I]the players learning what is in the GM's notes[/I]. The bit about the trial I would not. Obviously the players in my Traveller game might change the fiction, in the sense that (eg) they could use their starship beam lasers to destroy some or even all of the mining structures. (They probably can't change the orbit or volcanic character of the moon). In the case of the trial they did change the fiction - the player had his PC blow everyone else up with a concealed grenade. This was in fact why he wanted to establish that he went to the front of the pinnace. But changing the established fiction (which I think is what you mean - as opposed to [I]adding [/I]to it as happened in the play of the trial) requires the fiction to be established. And that has to come from someone. I find it hard to tell. I get the feeling that your play might be similar to [USER=23751]@Maxperson[/USER]'s, though I think you are a bit more self-conscious about techniques. I think both of you are different from [USER=85555]@Bedrockgames[/USER] who is in turn, I think, different from [USER=6698278]@Emerikol[/USER]. But those are just impressions formed on a very thin evidence base. [/QUOTE]
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