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Respect Mah Authoritah: Thoughts on DM and Player Authority in 5e
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<blockquote data-quote="pemerton" data-source="post: 8433641" data-attributes="member: 42582"><p>I also think many of those introductions are lacking in coherence. <a href="http://www.indie-rpgs.com/articles/21/" target="_blank">To elaborate</a>:</p><p></p><p style="margin-left: 20px">so many games say "it's not about winning" and then immediately provide extremely clear win/loss parameters for play. Sometimes I think it's because people believe that players are inherently Gamist and have to be appeased in some way. This uneasy waffling or endless qualifying shows up most often in fantasy games whose authors would <em>like</em> play to be about something else, but just can't quite believe that players would agree.</p> <p style="margin-left: 20px">From the introduction to RuneQuest, second edition (The Chaosium, 1978, 1979, 1980; specific author for this text unknown; game authors are Steve Perrin, Ray Turney, Steve Henderson, and Warren James):</p> <p style="margin-left: 20px"></p> <p style="margin-left: 20px"></p> <p style="margin-left: 20px">Now all that's pretty Gamist stuff of a late 1970s vintage, right? Get this, which follows immediately:</p> <p style="margin-left: 20px"></p> <p style="margin-left: 20px"></p> <p style="margin-left: 20px">All right, that bit about joining cults still seems kind of Gamist, right? About getting more effective and so on? Great ... except that the GM controls the High Priests and sages. Why would he, whose job was <em>just stated</em> to be to "keep the Adventurer from his goal," have them recognize the Adventurer in the first place? Either they do, and the GM must abandon the stated goal, or they don't, and that whole paragraph becomes gibberish.</p> <p style="margin-left: 20px"></p> <p style="margin-left: 20px">Bear in mind as well that "Hero" and "Superhero" are never defined, and indeed never again mentioned anywhere in the rulebook. See what I mean about waffly and uncertain text? Such text is the <em>default explanation</em> for role-playing, with very few exceptions, until the publication of Vampire in 1991. Even since, though, it's still the standard for fantasy games.</p><p></p><p>In a game in which the players' have a "job" or task or quest to complete, via the play of their PCs, then it seems that achieving that goal is a win. Not all RPGs are like this, but many are. And it's certainly not unheard of in D&D play!</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="pemerton, post: 8433641, member: 42582"] I also think many of those introductions are lacking in coherence. [URL='http://www.indie-rpgs.com/articles/21/']To elaborate[/URL]: [INDENT]so many games say "it's not about winning" and then immediately provide extremely clear win/loss parameters for play. Sometimes I think it's because people believe that players are inherently Gamist and have to be appeased in some way. This uneasy waffling or endless qualifying shows up most often in fantasy games whose authors would [I]like[/I] play to be about something else, but just can't quite believe that players would agree. From the introduction to RuneQuest, second edition (The Chaosium, 1978, 1979, 1980; specific author for this text unknown; game authors are Steve Perrin, Ray Turney, Steve Henderson, and Warren James): Now all that's pretty Gamist stuff of a late 1970s vintage, right? Get this, which follows immediately: All right, that bit about joining cults still seems kind of Gamist, right? About getting more effective and so on? Great ... except that the GM controls the High Priests and sages. Why would he, whose job was [I]just stated[/I] to be to "keep the Adventurer from his goal," have them recognize the Adventurer in the first place? Either they do, and the GM must abandon the stated goal, or they don't, and that whole paragraph becomes gibberish. Bear in mind as well that "Hero" and "Superhero" are never defined, and indeed never again mentioned anywhere in the rulebook. See what I mean about waffly and uncertain text? Such text is the [I]default explanation[/I] for role-playing, with very few exceptions, until the publication of Vampire in 1991. Even since, though, it's still the standard for fantasy games.[/INDENT] In a game in which the players' have a "job" or task or quest to complete, via the play of their PCs, then it seems that achieving that goal is a win. Not all RPGs are like this, but many are. And it's certainly not unheard of in D&D play! [/QUOTE]
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