Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="AbdulAlhazred" data-source="post: 7352199" data-attributes="member: 82106">It isn't about TRUST, it is about "what is the most reliable and useful process by which to translate the player's agenda and wants into the narrative so they get to play characters that address those things?" That's all it is about. Why go through the roundabout process of having a GM devise an entire setting in detail without reference to the players, and then try to translate that into addressing what they are interested in? Why make every element of the plot and setting the sole responsibility of the GM so that he has to figure out a way to understand what the players want and then do it, instead of just having the player say "My character is interested in overthrowing the Duke, I think I know a guy that has some dirt on him <throws Streetwise check>. YUP! OK, so now I know that the Duke actually had an older brother, but he mysteriously disappeared before their father died..." What is really wrong with that? I don't get it. Its just a lot more reliable and less work in my long experience than hoping that the GM will 'get' your suggestions and deign to add said NPC to the game. I mean, its not as if the GM can't say after the player's declaration above, "yes, but the guy you want has just been sent on campaign, so you can't ask him about it, and all you heard was a rumor that his wife gave you. If you want to find out the truth, you're going to have to dig deeper. As you return from your friend's house <check made behind screen> you get the feeling someone is watching you..." Its not like the GM is ceding all his role in constructing the plot here. He's just not the only one anymore that can introduce some element of narrative into the fiction. Now, lets say the character finds out that he needs a map in order to figure out where to look for another clue (something the wife said keyed him in on this, which required a history check, note that in my process this is ALL an SC). So the map is searched for, and maybe its found in the kitchen, lucky break! Maybe it isn't found, and the player is left failing to advance this element of the plot. OK, that's fine, there's always some other direction to go in, he can take a journey to find that guy that knows the stuff. He can try to nab one of the people following him. He can just find some other way to undermine the Duke.</blockquote>

Verification