Thursday, November 24, 2005
I've used some phrases and words interchangeably in my previous post, which probably caused some confusion. Not to mention that I kind of tied two separate ideas into one.
Consider the idea of the collaborative effort of constructing the campaign as my take on moving towards a different style of roleplaying. I'll point to The Forge, where some of the crazy ideas I get come from these days. I try to avoid using Forge-isms, as I don't want to take on the pretentious tone that often comes out of discussions by some of the people who participate in that site's forums.
My theory goes like this: GMs don't necessarily need to do all of the work to get a game off the ground, build the campaign and make all the decisions on what everybody else will find fun. Let's face it. Such assumptions often result in failure. When I assume what others will find fun (often based on my own ideas of what is fun and what I believe others find fun), I am often wrong. I'm not a mind-reader -- and in many cases, I end up basing some of my decisions on incorrect information about players (for instance, it can get very easy to think that certain players only want to do the powergamer thing, even if they haven't really exhibited such traits in many years).
There are actually some RPGs out there now (games by very small press publishers) that take away many of the GM's powers within a game. Universalis, which I have read a little bit about, appears to give all participants an equal level of power. Capes essentially takes the GM away; instead, it makes everybody an equal participant so that everyone is guiding the story and the characters' actions. From I know of Capes, it's probably one of the most untraditional RPGs out there.
And then there's my beloved Wushu, which puts more narrative power on the shoulders of the players. The GM still guides events, but when it comes to narrating what's going on, the players are often making decisions, and the GM works with those decisions (or occasionally vetoes something because it doesn't fit with what is going on).
It's a dull day, and I'm rambling. Hopefully by the time I'm done regurgitating bullshit onto my blog, there will be something of interest here that I can work with at a later date. :)
Consider the idea of the collaborative effort of constructing the campaign as my take on moving towards a different style of roleplaying. I'll point to The Forge, where some of the crazy ideas I get come from these days. I try to avoid using Forge-isms, as I don't want to take on the pretentious tone that often comes out of discussions by some of the people who participate in that site's forums.
My theory goes like this: GMs don't necessarily need to do all of the work to get a game off the ground, build the campaign and make all the decisions on what everybody else will find fun. Let's face it. Such assumptions often result in failure. When I assume what others will find fun (often based on my own ideas of what is fun and what I believe others find fun), I am often wrong. I'm not a mind-reader -- and in many cases, I end up basing some of my decisions on incorrect information about players (for instance, it can get very easy to think that certain players only want to do the powergamer thing, even if they haven't really exhibited such traits in many years).
There are actually some RPGs out there now (games by very small press publishers) that take away many of the GM's powers within a game. Universalis, which I have read a little bit about, appears to give all participants an equal level of power. Capes essentially takes the GM away; instead, it makes everybody an equal participant so that everyone is guiding the story and the characters' actions. From I know of Capes, it's probably one of the most untraditional RPGs out there.
And then there's my beloved Wushu, which puts more narrative power on the shoulders of the players. The GM still guides events, but when it comes to narrating what's going on, the players are often making decisions, and the GM works with those decisions (or occasionally vetoes something because it doesn't fit with what is going on).
It's a dull day, and I'm rambling. Hopefully by the time I'm done regurgitating bullshit onto my blog, there will be something of interest here that I can work with at a later date. :)
// posted by Chris @ 1:10 PM 
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