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Message: <blockquote data-quote="nnms" data-source="post: 6262916" data-attributes="member: 83293">And a second exercise:  Sheetless play or Black Box GMing.Again, you'll want a simple system as in this exercise, you'll be handling every single rules related thing there is.  No one else will be using dice, looking at character sheets or anything at all related to the game system.  It'll all be behind your screen.In this exercise you'll run a scenario normally, but no one else at the table will ever have any access to anything game system related but you.  You'll have to describe everything in normal language and never, ever, ever in rules terms.Try to do it in a way that the players have no idea whatsoever what rules you are using.  Describe injuries rather than hit or life point losses.  Describe the visible effects of magic or monster abilities, not their game term names.  All dice are rolled unseen to the players and you keep all the character sheets.They have a general list of their character's capabilities in real language and they can write down any equipment or notes they like.  So their note sheet might say something like "Koreil the Mighty - an experienced hunter who has never fought any monsters until now.  He's trapped small animals, killed deer with a bow, but has never fought with the denizens of the underworld.  Hopefully his keen eyes and survivor's instict will help him complete his quest."  And then list his equipment like his leather jerkin with riveting metal disks, his bow, his spear, backpack, food, supplies, etc.,.In this case I think you'll find:1) Your description matters even more than before.  Every single result of every action will only ever be communicated to another person using natural descriptive language.  You won't have system fallbacks like talking about armour class or spell caster level or whatever.  You'll be telling players about the javelin glancing off their breastplate and how they feel like a walking wall of steel rather than just saying the attack roll wasn't good enough for the AC the plate armour provides.2) You'll also really be able to tell when the player's care about something.  They'll attempt things that matter to them rather than looking at the system to provide them with the ideas of the things they should be doing.3) When you have a description and system mismatch you'll be surprised how much more people notice it when they can't see the system.  You could describe the exact same situation with the exact same words and roll the exact same dice and where people would previously shrug as the system produces a result that breaks their expectations, they'll instead be confused or annoyed as you essentially provided them with inaccurate information and they'll be far less likely to pass it off as a quirk of the rules.4) When the system you are using behind the screen produces a surprising result, you'll have to explain or sell it to the participants through your description.  Otherwise it'll seem like a description-system mismatch described in 3).  If you've previously described a little dog man as shaking in fear as large human warriors loom around it and then it crits and drops a well armoured PC based on a lucky roll, you'll need to describe how the little creature closes his eyes in desperation and lunges forward with his little spear, which manages to find the spot right between two armoured plates and pierces right through the padding below.</blockquote>

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