From: dfrancis@tronsbox.xei.com (Dennis Heffernan)
Subject: Re: Improvisation!
Organization: Xanadu Enterprises Inc.
Date: Sat, 22 Aug 1992 04:43:28 GMT

In article <4801@balrog.ctron.com> smith@ctron.com writes:
|Excuse me, a "properly written" mystery is a novel or a screenplay, not a
|game.  What am I, Agatha Christie?  This is a hobby, not a profession.  My

	Agatha Christie's "mysteries" suck, as far as the type of fair-play
mystery we're talking about here goes.  The "solutions" always revolve
around the protagonist having access to some bit of information the reader
never got.

	This is "only" a hobby for me, too.  That means it is _more_ important
than a profession.  I don't enjoy shoddy craftsmanship.

|players tied up two plot holes I was saving for another game to get that
|answer, what am I supposed to tell them, "Oh, no, no connection?"  I should
|stifle _their_ creativity and input for _my_ convenience?  That's not what

	Yes.  GM's have rights too.  The players have the right to contribute
to the campaign _through their characters_.  That's it.

|a GameMaster is for, you are there to present one hell of an adventure.  If
|that adventure is made better or more complete by acknowledging an interpreta-
|tion from one of the players, then "reality" quietly and retroactively

	In other words, let them win all the time.  That sucks.

|changes.  That this is the case is only known to me, the GM, not to the
|players, they will never know I was saving those plot holes, and they will
|never know that game might not have been as good.

	And sell them short while you're at it.  Why not let them EARN their
satisfaction instead of just handing it to them?  Are your players really so
stupid as to not realize that they can't possibly solve EVERY mystery they
come across?

|
|A good GameMaster does not make the game worse just for his or her own
|convenience or ego.  You do what is best for the game, to make it hard

	You're right of course, only a real idiot would make his game worse.

	More usefully, we're discussing whether or not changing the details on
the fly DOES make a game better or worse.  

|A GameMaster _accepts_ the responsibility that he or she is there specifically
|and for no other purpose than to _entertain_ the others.  It is the same role
|a stand-up comic takes with the audience, that a host takes with houseguests,
|that the maitre'd takes in a fine restaurant.

	...or a whore with a john.  Sorry, I DON'T guarantee that you'll get
off every time.  You have to work for it.

	On top of that, I respectfully submit that a GM is just as entitled to
be entertained as his players.  I don't do all this work so other people can
enjoy themselves; I do it because I enjoy it.

|
|Bravo, Elizabeth, well-spoken.  Remember that from the players point of view,
|these considerations were never present.  They worked hard to solve the

	The hell they weren't.  You think people really can't tell when they're
being spoon-fed?  I can.

|The players should never get the feeling the universe revolves around them.

	After their seventeenth consecutive smashing victory they may begin to
get a little suspicious.


dfrancis@tronsbox.xei.com   ...uunet!tronsbox!dfrancis     GEnie: D.HEFFERNAN1
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"That's a very healthy attitude...it just sounds strange coming from you."
					-Corky Sherwood-Forrest

Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.misc