Had the crud last week. What started as a head cold devolved into a persistent headache and achy joints. My brain is finally starting to work again.
But Vanguard, bless his heart, picked up a 3-day pass to PAX East for me. Gamer geek cred cashes in come March 2011. I'm stoked beyond reason. There's excited, and then there's complete fanboy-needs-clean-shorts stokedness. Can you guess which one I am?
I'm officially a founding member of Gameful - Also psyched about that. Can't wait for this Sunday when the back door opens for those of us who kicked in an extra few bucks. I have no idea what it's going to be, but I can't wait to get involved.
And maybe my ideas constrict play a little too much. In thinking about this Playful talk from Russel Davies, we need to create frameworks for people to bend or change rules, not just present a finite world for people to explore and work within. Eventually everything in the world will be explored, and there's only so much one GM can do to keep ahead of the inquisitive player mob.
What's left? Make them GMs too. Let them change the story. Let them introduce elements that you never thought of. Let them rewrite the rules. It's an act of faith and a deep sense of trust between everyone involved in the game to let this happen.
But how else are we really going to reach each other and make the world a better place?
EDIT: Added link to Russel Davies' talk. Oops.
As far as open frameworks and games go, some of the best gaming (RPGs) I've ever done was with you as a GM.
ReplyDeleteIt was never particularly defined on where we were SUPPOSED to go to next. You gave options, and the group collectively decided what to do.
Not always easy for the GM as I know often times we picked totally random stuff you had to scurry to put together, but that's what made it a blast to play in. You provided a universe with basically infinite possibilities for us the players to explore.
You even encouraged the thinking outside the box. Many of the characters were multi-classed and you would modify the rule book rules to make them appropriate to the setting and our desires. Sometimes, we wanted to make a particularly clever item, or throw you for a loop by using our equipment in different and unique ways. (Monk with an anti-magic amulet and insane move speed was great against mobs, but pissed off the other player characters who used magic. I loved that.)
It was never "No you can't do that", you would think about if it could be possible and if it seemed too overpowered, you'd compensate in some way. Chance of failure, only usable during the blue moon, etc. I mean, you can't have something so crazy overpowered it would make the game un-fun to play. All about balance.
Truly open gaming as far as we the players thought, and like I said . . . very enjoyable to play in.
Part of me wishes I had taken much better notes. I often think a lot of these games could turn into great stories. It's not one person's imagination creating the world and events therein . . . but rather a group that shapes the story and characters within the framework . . .and that you can't find many other places these days.
Thank you. I don't think I could ask for higher praise.
ReplyDeleteIt was a blast to GM. I always knew when I was doing my job as a GM when I could leave the room and everyone continued arguing about what to do next.
Speaking of which, I still want to have a final wrap of the Adris game - there were too many things going on to cover everything in the course of the game and I'd like to give you players a peek behind the curtain, as it were...