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Message: <blockquote data-quote="howandwhy99" data-source="post: 5397119" data-attributes="member: 3192">Well, then don't think about it in terms of power to tell a story.  Think of it like a puzzle game. As I mentioned in that wall  of text, if you think the NY Times crossword puzzler or Alex Trebek are there to oppress people, you're going to miss out on a lot of fun.To be fair the vocabulary of literature is a wonderful ladder that can take people places few others can.  But, like any vocabulary, it limits as well as enables.  Choose to think in more than one singular viewpoint and you will find "good DM" can mean enabling people in vastly different ways than those possible in "games as literature".  For one example, chess enables people in a manner poorly defined within strict literary terminology.  It has no "Say yes", "Yes, but", or "Yes, and" rules, but players become so devoted to it some play it their whole lives. As in the example I gave I am adjusting reactions accordingly for a new cult member.  It's now in the game, part of the code.  And NPCs are not my PCs to play, they are more of the code. I do not improvise their actions or I would be breaking the rules.  As I said above in a few different places I play a code breaking game.  It is what I believe most gamers want.  It is what drives such devotion to games like Magic: the Gathering and many others.  If you sit down to play a joint storytelling game with M:tG, I believe you will be missing out on all the fun in its design.  It requires being open minded enough to perceive the game as designed for something other than self expression.I've mentioned in other places that Tic-Tac-Toe is a good example of postmodern self-blindness.  1st a new player may attempt to win by perhaps going first, in the corner, etc.  2nd the player recognizes the underlying pattern, the eight ways to win. 3rd the game is so simple it is understood most all games will either end in ties, a mistake by one player or both, or an intentional loss.  The 4th state, the postmodern one, is to claim there is no pattern and Tic-Tac-Toe designed so people can tell stories to each other.  This isn't because the narrative vocabulary is "correct".  It is because the term story, like art, has been smurfed, for lack of a better word.  All human experience, expression, and thought are story. They are stuff, in part and in whole.  Preferring one vocabulary instead of another to talk about this story/stuff isn't wrong, but limiting yourself to one is, in the end, limiting your self.</blockquote>

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