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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Bedrockgames" data-source="post: 9046916" data-attributes="member: 85555">Beyond speed these are things that are important to balance in a living world. The reason for terms like living world, world in motion etc, is to avoid the world feeling too static. At the same time you want it to function like a believable place. And they aren't meant to be spectators. I can say in my games the players are very active in shaping where things go and how things unfold. I don't believe any of them feel like spectators. Again a lot of this comes down not to just ideas about keeping the world believable but in fairness, in trust, in the GM being open with the players about how these kinds of decisions are being made (and I find that to be helpful conversations about that between the sessions or even during are a great opportunity to get feedback). Probably 50% of my games are run  in a manner like me and Rob are discussing (with me probably leaning much more into genre and drama). But I am not married to a gaming philosophy when I run a table, I am there to make sure people are engaged, getting what they want out of play, and that the campaign is functioning and can last over a long period of time. So I will often throw in a wide variety of techniques outside the standard of what Rob and I are talking about if I feel it is helpful or fits what the group wants. Like I can't stand adventure paths. But I have had instances where it was clear a few of the players really wanted to be sent on an adventure path and made one for them. I am not going to ruin peoples enjoyment over something like a gaming philosophy (any school of thought or way of looking at gaming I adopt should be in service to making the game better, not something that becomes a straight jacket). That said the players in those 50% of my games, they are often players who really want this sense of a world outside themselves. One reason I am open about tracking NPC movement is a player asked me how I was managing that because a session felt particularly real to him in terms of contending with NPCs who were trying to reach the same destination and get an object before they did. When I told him what I did he was very satisfied and said he liked how it created a sense of the world being this real and external thing. Being fair to the players is I think a really huge part of getting this style to work (and not making it just about your creation). You do have a creative role in that you need to produce setting content, NPCs, gameable stuff, but it isn't about where you want all those things to go. It is I think very important to, as Rob says, let the players trash the setting. It is also important to take a let the dice fall where they may mentality.</blockquote>

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