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Message: <blockquote data-quote="lewpuls" data-source="post: 8794282" data-attributes="member: 30518">Like sports fans, RPGers want consistency of GMs rulings. This is both in the “meta” mode, what characters do aside from adventures, and adventures mode.[ATTACH=full]263451[/ATTACH] <a href="https://pixabay.com/photos/asphalt-street-trees-avenue-2178703/" target="_blank">Picture courtesy of Pixabay.</a><h2>Call It Consistently!</h2>Watching the NBA finals a few years ago, I often heard the plea of players and coaches—and spectators—that referees call the game consistently. Whether they call it tight or loose, call lots of fouls inside or outside, as long as the refs are consistent the players can adjust their play accordingly.Thinking about some adventures I’ve experienced over the years, I realized that RPGers also want consistency of GMs rulings. This is both in the “meta” mode, what characters do aside from adventures, and the adventure mode.<h2>Time</h2>One of inconsistency that bugs me is when a GM ordinarily gives players lots of time to consider what to do, but then at a stressful point goes into real-time and rushes everyone (introducing video-game-like time stress). To me this is a cheap GM trick; I figure I’m playing a game not really adventuring. (In real-world adventures, it is real-time.).<h2>Believability vs. Boring</h2>Another consideration: the key to believability in games is consistency. In board games it's easier to maintain a baseline consistency on how the game world works, but RPGs take a lot more work. <a href="https://www.enworld.org/threads/worlds-of-design-making-an-adventure-%E2%80%9Cbelievable%E2%80%9D.689124/" target="_blank">Some GMs care about believability, some don’t</a>.On the other hand, consistency in the kinds of things the players actually do, the kinds of challenges they meet (even storytelling is a challenge), is usually  not desirable. No matter what it is, doing the same thing over and over and over can becomes tedious, whether it’s saving the world, or slaughtering orcs, or playing politics, etc.<h2>Pacing Yourself</h2>Dramatic presentations of any kind require good pacing to stay “fresh.” A one-word description of good pacing might be “variability.” “Pacing” is an unfortunate choice of words, because it implies steady, measured endeavor (“walking with slow regular strides”), which is not desirable.Good pacing is about more than three-act structure, though following a structure of that sort, or even the Hero’s Journey, <a href="http://www.enworld.org/forum/content.php?4185-Let-s-Not-Save-The-World-Again#.WTiLhWgrKUk" target="_blank">necessarily varies the pacing of the event</a>.<h2>Consistent GM Styles</h2><a href="https://www.enworld.org/threads/worlds-of-design-improvising-the-adventure.689110/" target="_blank">Of the two extremes of GM style</a>, “GM as arbiter” makes consistency easier, except that it subjects GMs to “rules lawyering." In other words, if the GM just interprets the rules (which must be quite detailed for this to work) and doesn’t make up new rules, then consistency is easier to achieve (assuming the game itself is consistent!). Detailed game rules actually help the GM be consistent, but they also require more GM time, attention, and sometimes more planning than if the game rules are less detailed.“GM as god,” on the other hand, can easily lead to inconsistency. If the players are more invested in a storyline in which events happen to them (and they play along), they may find these inconsistencies less jarring as long as the end result is a good story.<h2>RPGs Are Not Linear Entertainment</h2>When it comes to consistency, RPGs are more than simple entertainment, they're games too. Contrast the attitude with mass-market entertainment like television shows and movies. Consistency is often lacking in these mediums, in cartoons especially, and in TV writing in general. Writers think nothing of “cheating," of putting things into the program that couldn’t possibly be right in light of later “reveals." But most viewers don't care enough to hurt the show, if they notice at all. The same kind of thing happens in many genres of film, especially blockbuster adventures. Most of us end up spotting huge plot holes but agree to accept them and move on in order to enjoy the film.Games are made of different stuff, and gamers expect consistency because they're not just passively watching, they're participating.Your Turn: Is consistency an important part of your group’s play style?</blockquote>

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