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<blockquote data-quote="pemerton" data-source="post: 7344799" data-attributes="member: 42582">This is not a general truth about RPGing. It is true in those games in which player action declarations count only as suggestions to the GM to change the fiction a certain way. But that is just a subset of RPG play.This likewise is not a general truth, because your conception of what ways matter is not universally held.If I am actually trying to solve a mystery in the real world, and can't find any footprints, that's a fact about the world that I have to deal with.If I am playing a RPG, and the GM tells me I can't find any footprints, that's a fact about the exercise of authority over the fiction in a game which has, as an important component of play, the generation of a shared fiction. As a player I don't have to just deal with that - I can find a better game! And as a GM, I'm not obliged just to deal with this either - I can run my game in a fashion that I prefer (which, in fact, is what I do).Or to put it another way: the allocation of authority to establish the fiction is not some brute matter of fact. It's a matter of game design, and it's up for grabs. It doesn't have to be one way or another.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="pemerton, post: 7344799, member: 42582"] This is not a general truth about RPGing. It is true in those games in which player action declarations count only as suggestions to the GM to change the fiction a certain way. But that is just a subset of RPG play. This likewise is not a general truth, because your conception of what ways matter is not universally held. If I am actually trying to solve a mystery in the real world, and can't find any footprints, that's a fact about the world that I have to deal with. If I am playing a RPG, and the GM tells me I can't find any footprints, that's a fact about the exercise of authority over the fiction in a game which has, as an important component of play, the generation of a shared fiction. As a player I [I]don't[/I] have to just deal with that - I can find a better game! And as a GM, I'm not obliged just to deal with this either - I can run my game in a fashion that I prefer (which, in fact, is what I do). Or to put it another way: the allocation of authority to establish the fiction is not some brute matter of fact. It's a matter of game design, and it's up for grabs. It doesn't [I]have to be[/I] one way or another. [/QUOTE]

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