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Message: <blockquote data-quote="AbdulAlhazred" data-source="post: 7378167" data-attributes="member: 82106">I think this is addressed in my previous post, somewhat, but you won't have seen that yet...There are more considerations than the player's desire to instantly achieve his fondest wishes. First of all, if all the players are interested in doing is achieving everything they want at the snap of their fingers, then why not run that game for them? I predict that they'll outgrow that mode of play in approximately 1 session, but who knows? If you really hate running the resulting game and the players insist on continuing it then clearly they need a new GM...So, the above 'table considerations' being dealt with; we have that there are genre conventions and dramatic pacing and similar concerns which militate against the instant fulfillment of the player's ultimate goals. There are a few approaches here which could be taken:1) The DC for instant fulfillment of your desire is simply astronomical. In fact its not an unattainable DC, but it will only be attained after months of play and character advancement. The player is welcome to try to insist on making these checks constantly in every situation, but it will be fruitless and costly. Eventually he will fail entirely and his story will be about the fate of the feckless dreamer or something like that! 2) The GM can frame the scene to include something useful in the way of getting what the character wants. A strange beggar gives him a vision of a holy sword in a glowing castle somewhere. 3) Maybe he gets some lesser version of what he wants, or he discovers its not so simple. He finds the sword in the chapel adjacent to the market, but he can't touch it until he has become worthy. 4) He attains his dream, and then some terrible price immediately arises. He has to choose, keep the sword or save the town! If he chooses the sword, then he'll spend the rest of his days trying to make penance for sacrificing innocent lives, while carrying around a sword that curses him and marks him as a sinner! This one is perhaps a bit of 'dirty pool' in that the GM is sort of subverting the player's character goal, but it actually is OK because the character could just give up the sword, save the town, and then resume his quest for it. I'm pretty sure this basic plot has been used numerous times in legends and movies alike.In the end, given reasonable GMing and players who are actually interested in playing Story Now, your concerns don't really apply. Its like condemning GM centered gaming because the GM can kill off the characters at any moment, or take away all their goodies and never let them have any fun. In neither type of game are these concerns relevant. Terrible games exist, they generally last a couple sessions and die, or get better.</blockquote>

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