The Laws of World Turnings
3) The world does not exist in a stasis except for the PCs.
3a) The NPCs may have access to the same equipment as the PCs.
3b) Information may pass both ways.
The world does not exist in a stasis except for the PCs.
I'm a world builder. I can tell you minutiae about the worlds I've run games in, despite the fact that until about a minute ago I never knew I knew how to spell the word. I can tell you histories and name names that are, frankly, meaningless to anyone who doesn't have to exist in the world for even as long as the players do... but I know there are "people" living there to whom this is important. They need to know that King Alma gave the throne not to his eldest son, Makkar El Ronious, but to his younger son, the Warrior, after the boy was married to a smart young woman. After all, where did all the Mad Uncle Elroy stories get started?
On the other hand, I know GMs who put the most loving care in their worlds. They don't hew a couple of rough logs together and call it a forest. They carefully chip away and reveal the fine grain, unwrap each leaf carefully, saturate the soil with the right symbiote...
...and then let the PCs in like the place was some kind of museum.
Oh, sure, they can kill important people...who are then replaced with simulacrums-- people much like them. (I suppose there's a loose historical precedent suggesting that people in charge have seconds and the like that are ready to take their place...) Or they can save "the day" and the next day nothing's...changed.
Maybe I'm just too much of a Utena fan, but to me, almost every adventure is a revolution to someone. I know, the MIB have to fight world-ending plots every day and most people don't notice, but their organization does and improves for it.
I want people in my world not just to play on the equipment, but to make improvements. "Hey, this is an awesome swingset, but you know what we need? We need huge air bags to land on once we jump off!" And you know what, next time I build a swingset, I make the air bags optional. Just as my world improves for the players, it improves for me. ("Whee!")
Comments (1)
I've gamed with the museum guy.
We used to have a saying about this one GM: you could lock him in a closet for five years, and he could come out and tell you exactly what had happened in his world through that time. It was a very backhanded compliment.
I'm a gestalt GM. I can fake the depth when it's needed, but a lot of it isn't there until I do need it. Then something comes up and I weave it into the story. The HOC encyclopedia is the quick and dirty way of remembering previous improvisations.
Posted by Ginger | August 9, 2003 12:13 PM
Posted on August 9, 2003 12:13