Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Fenris-77" data-source="post: 8245823" data-attributes="member: 6993955">I think we've actually managed to collectively hit on an important thing here. Games like Blades, or Dungeon World, have a very specific style that their mechanics are purpose-designed to foster and support. Talking about them is, at least in that way, pretty easy. Those games still vary from GM to GM of course, but not to the same extent that D&D or OSR games do. With those latter games things change. They lack the same mechanical support for a specific style or approach, that portion of their rules is left very much to the GM or perhaps the table to decide on. Here I'm talking about things like the division of agency or the fashion in which outcomes are driven by player decision making. That's neither a good nor a bad thing, just a thing. But it does result in a much higher variance in GM styles and approaches using the same rules set, and I think it's about as hard, perhaps harder, to compare two different D&D GM styles than it is to compare a Blades GM to a D&D GM because the rules themselves lack specific mechanics that would provide a shared frame of reference.When you ask a PbtA GM how he works threats in his game, for example, he can point to the idea of fronts and be very specific about how those notes turn into adjudicated outcomes and consequences at his table. D&D or OSR games? No such luck. Each GM in those cases is faced with the problem of trying to elucidate their personal style from scratch, a style that they might well not have formally codified, it's just a collection of learned skills and habits accreted over time. That's not necessarily an easy thing to explain. Personally, I've taken a lot of ideas from PbtA and Blades and codified more of what I do at the table as a GM in those terms, even if might I adjust the specifics to match different systems or desired table outcomes. So for me it's maybe easier to compare my OSR campaign to a Blades campaign. But for someone who hasn't run Blades? Maybe more difficult. Frame of reference is, I think, tripping us up a little here.</blockquote>

Verification