tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8116962779728480800.post4950635217816872194..comments2024-03-25T03:52:40.426-07:00Comments on The Ongoing Campaign: Not Everyone Thinks The Same Wayfaoladhhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03691952430041394614noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8116962779728480800.post-64690099456209849622012-07-27T11:51:22.230-07:002012-07-27T11:51:22.230-07:00I don't think that the Referee should be deter...I don't think that the Referee should be determining what is or isn't interesting, though. The story comes, I am arguing, from the players. The Referee is there to make sure that they don't become self-indulgent or bogged down in irrelevancies (though her tools to do so depend on the specific game - ideally, they should be exclusively associated with events and objects in the game setting), and to provide a backdrop against which the players can tell their stories.<br /><br />I guess what I'm saying is something like what Vince Baker was saying in <i>Dogs in the Vineyard</i>, that the interesting thing is to see what choices (moral or otherwise) the players, your friends, make. Now, he took things to a strange and philosophically unsound (in my opinion) level by forcibly wrenching editorial powers (and veto!) away from the Referee and making narrative preeminent over other considerations (effectively making events occur according to the narrative rather than having the narrative be descriptive of the events), but that basic idea seems sound to me.<br /><br />Of course, all of this is alleviated somewhat by my generally positive feelings about what Digest Group used to call "Random Nuggets", which were stray scenes that the Referee could drop into any game as needed, like Quantum Ogres, so I don't know that I am entirely consistent on the matter.<br /><br />This is just me babbling from the starting point you gave me, please don't take it as an argument against your play style, which I would imagine works well for you and your group.faoladhhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03691952430041394614noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8116962779728480800.post-27495709424502487072012-07-27T11:10:16.930-07:002012-07-27T11:10:16.930-07:00I'm totally on board with the sandbox approach...I'm totally on board with the sandbox approach. Admittedly, I don't have a problem changing what's going on in a scenario based on what the characters do, in that I might indeed change the number or type of monsters I'd planned for a room, but only to make it more interesting, not to make it "cushy" or more fair. If it's too tough a challenge for them, they are going to need to be smart enough to run. But I certainly won't let them know I'm tweaking things on the fly. It always appears as though it's "what I was planning all along." :) I also don't generally fudge dice rolls.EverKanghttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05207474993321864378noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8116962779728480800.post-89998031244093569122012-07-20T06:51:46.193-07:002012-07-20T06:51:46.193-07:00Thanks! I'm glad that it actually seems to hav...Thanks! I'm glad that it actually seems to have presented the idea I was trying to get across, at least a bit. I was in a hurry when I wrote it (and I see that I never did follow up on what I meant about Alignment - I'll have to write something about that sometime), and I'm never sure how something like that is going to turn out.faoladhhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03691952430041394614noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8116962779728480800.post-55231615358147822182012-07-20T04:54:10.942-07:002012-07-20T04:54:10.942-07:00Great post. Shared it.Great post. Shared it.Gothridge Manorhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11371740532802642972noreply@blogger.com