You are not the Director

[Fifth Element]

And if there is no "script" . . . ?

Some bearing on being a DM. That post applies to situations where the DM has something analogous to a script. Arguably, details of a campaign setting are analagous to a script.

 

[Celebrim]

Some bearing on being a DM. That post applies to situations where the DM has something analogous to a script. Arguably, details of a campaign setting are analagous to a script.

They are much more analogous to the art direction, although typically art direction fits the needs of a preexisting story and typically in RPGs the story fits the needs of the preexisting 'art'. There is a transformation that takes place between 'campaign setting' and the events of a session that (hopefully, but not inevitably) creates something with the features of a story. That transformation can involve several steps and the creative input of more than one person. Sometimes there is a script of some sort and sometimes there isn't a script. And even when there is a script, its more like the script to the movie 'Clue', in which there are branching paths - only much much more so.

Of course, when I say that the DM has hope that a story will emerge from the session complete with a beginning, antagonist, rising action, twist, climax and conclusion, I probably only mean what I hope. There are probably DMs out there who would say that whatever happens is the story, regardless of whether it has a classic story form or features, and that my intention to tease a traditional story from the character's interaction with the setting requires actions on my part that are inevitably too authoritarian.

Regardless, I'm not sure these analogies actually clarify anything. Whether we label the campaign setting, 'more like art direction' or 'more like a script' doesn't really clarify what a 'campaign setting' is. It's a statement that depends as much on knowing what a campaign setting actually is as it does on knowing what art direction and scripts are. It doesn't seem to me that it gives you any information you don't already have, and you acceptance of the analogy entirely depends on your own opinions on what a setting is for. It's not really an analogy: it's a proxy argument.

 

[Mallus]

Art directors don't usually create characters ("Loved your Coliseum Lenny. Can you give me hand with the principle antagonist? I'm really blocked").

Or take part in guiding where the narrative goes ("Hey, that's a great backdrop of a canal Lenny. Say, that's a great idea! The hero goes to Venice next!").

There's no getting around role-playing game settings/backgrounds/backdrops contain plot, or rather, the seeds of potential plots. Good setting design (heck even most bad setting design) is a kind of plotting. Ergo, the DM must be more than just the art director. They are, at least in part, screenwriters.

(they're still not like director's, though)

 

[Fifth Element]

They are much more analogous to the art direction, although typically art direction fits the needs of a preexisting story and typically in RPGs the story fits the needs of the preexisting 'art'.

Perhaps they are more analogous to art direction, but art direction falls under the perview of the director anyway.

Regardless, I'm not sure these analogies actually clarify anything. Whether we label the campaign setting, 'more like art direction' or 'more like a script' doesn't really clarify what a 'campaign setting' is.

Agreed.

 

[Celebrim]

There's no getting around role-playing game settings/backgrounds/backdrops contain plot, or rather, the seeds of potential plots. Good setting design (heck even most bad setting design) is a kind of plotting. Ergo, the DM must be more than just the art director. They are, at least in part, screenwriters.

There is no need for them to be either. My point in bring up 'art direction' was mostly to complicate any attempt at making an analogy. It wasn't to say that campaign settings were actually analogous to the art direction for a movie.

Why must we hammer the square peg of gamemastery (surely a square peg) into the round hole of screenwriting? We don't insist on labeling novelists screenwriters? Writing for a comic book and writing for the screen have alot in common, but we don't insist on calling comic book writers screenwriters.

Creating for an RPG is its own unique art and has its own unique needs and constraints. Good RPG art - and I mean the entire range of RPG art here not just visual art and illustration - has its own unique voice and needs that are unlike any other medium. A comic book has a writer, illustrator, inker, letterer, and editor each with there own impact on the finished work and each with their own role which is in many respects unique to the artform. For an RPG session, we have things like setting designer, a module writer, a gamemaster, and one or more players each of which contribute to the art. The gamemaster is not a director. The player is not an actor. They have roles that are different than those of the film and stage. In stage craft, the director tells the actor how to act, what to say, and where to say it in order to fulfill the director's artistic vision. Some director's allow the actor more freedom to experiment than others, but ultimately the director has authority over the players performance and that is the director's main role. In an RPG, the gamemaster is as much of an actor as the players themselves, and while his authority is greater even than that of a director, his authority over the performance of the other players is quite limited.

A role playing game is a role playing game. It shares some common features with movie making and novels and comic books by virtue of belonging to the same superclass, just as a tricycles, escalators, zeppelins, space shuttles, and cement mixers share some common features by virtue of being forms of transportation. However, just as we'd be idiots to insist on an analogy between the rotating drum of a cement mixer and some feature of an escalator, so we also gain very little by taking features unique to one form of story-telling (the director's role in a movie) and trying to make them analogous to all forms of story-telling.

 

[The Shaman]

There's no getting around role-playing game settings/backgrounds/backdrops contain plot, or rather, the seeds of potential plots. Good setting design (heck even most bad setting design) is a kind of plotting. Ergo, the DM must be more than just the art director. They are, at least in part, screenwriters.

Mallus, with all due respect, it sounds like you want to expand the definition of scripting to include the entire creative process, and I think that's stretching the definition much too far.

 

[amerigoV]

And if there is no "script" . . . ?

What kind of weaksauce game does not have a script? Its bad enough when real actors improv. There is no way I am letting a bunch of novice hacks come up with their own dialogue. Pure drivel. A crapload of cockney accents (or Scottish, if a dwarf) and a bunch of rehashed lines from Monte Python. Pulease!

Why, just last night I was working with one of my players at rehearsal. "Cut!!! What the heck are you doing, Ragnar? Its punch, twirl, kneel, and strike. Then your line about getting revenge for your father's death! Lets take it again from the top, and will FEELING this time!"

 

[The Shaman]

Even the best sandbox campaign can go in directions unexpected when the players are introduced to the environment.

That's actually the goal of a sandbox campaign.

In my experience and all that.

 

[TarionzCousin]

Has anyone compared DM's to cat-herders yet?

 

[Hussar]

What kind of weaksauce game does not have a script? Its bad enough when real actors improv. There is no way I am letting a bunch of novice hacks come up with their own dialogue. Pure drivel. A crapload of cockney accents (or Scottish, if a dwarf) and a bunch of rehashed lines from Monte Python. Pulease!

Why, just last night I was working with one of my players at rehearsal. "Cut!!! What the heck are you doing, Ragnar? Its punch, twirl, kneel, and strike. Then your line about getting revenge for your father's death! Lets take it again from the top, and will FEELING this time!"

Oh, I totally understand your feelings. Why, just the other day, I was forced to correct one of our wayward brothers. Unbelievably, he was actually WRITING UP KEYED LOCATIONS. Oh my god. Talk about railroading. Doesn't he know that we must never script anything? All encounters must be 100% ad libbed with no preparation whatsoever.

Horror of horrors, he even had a TIMELINE of events that would occur unless the PC's intervened. Choo choo. All aboard this railroad. I mean, what a terrible DM he was to actually spend the time making sure that his campaign had logical flow and coherency. For shame.

Worst of all, he took the time to plan out chained events. If the guards in one room rang the alarm, then other guards would come to their aid! Imagine my shock. A logical flow of events, pre-determined before play?!?!?! I was stunned. After all, one should never, ever script anything. To do otherwise is to shackle the poor players to a particular chain of events.

Needless to say, I spent much time correcting him. He won't do that again in a hurry.