A'right. This week I'm trying for something a wee bit different as we're talking more about things from the player's perspective, and that's not something I know too much about, so I've recruited Hark and we've done a bit of a double-header. In fact we've done a lot of a double-header - there's about five times as much material as I usually record (this is what not having a script will do for you), four after all the awkward waiting-to-see-what-we-think-of-next pauses have been edited out, and nobody wants to sit through approximately thirty-eight minutes of two British people talking semi-seriously about nerd games all at once.
So it's a three-parter. The fourth is a bit off-message and I'll be saving that for when I inevitably get brain mange or something and need a filler episode. Anyway, here's Part The First, with 100% more Hark, 100% more multi-partness, and 100% more actual transcript rather than cheat-and-copypaste-the-script. There's even some swearing.
Hello and Happy New Year, folks.
Once again we are putting paid to any rumours that we're not all Lo's man-bitches, because this week's topic suggestion comes from her - and from James S as well. They have asked, respectively, if we can talk about the dissonance of expectations between players and gamesmasters, and about the balance of power - whose responsibility it is to make a given RPG... run smoothly. Now, I can bang on about this from the GM's side of things for, well, give or take an entire lifetime, but I've only been a player four times and frankly I wasn't very good at it. I need a player. PLAYER!
Yeah?
Come over 'ere.
Hello!
This is a roleplayer, and we're going to talk about... the balance of power.
...power...
So. Balance of power. Whose job is it to make an RPG... good?
Well... everyone's. Players' and GMs' alike. i think you as a GM tend to be all "it is ALL my responsibility, it is my brainchild, if i do not make it work all the players will run away, ohhh...", and the moment any player gets bored and picks their nose you're all "aaaagh, i am a fail..."
Well, the thing is, if people are bored, it's because other people are boring them.
Yeah, or sometimes it's just because they're boring. sometimes you're like "today has been a bad day, and i know i have to roleplay, but my own problems are much bigger than this tiny goblin's", or sometimes you're a naturally boring person. or not boring, but sometimes you're a person who's like "so i came for my RPG, this is where we hit all the things with the axes and we steal all the treasure, and we run away!", and you come and you're like "so, i have decided to do The Maltese Falcon in the world of Warhammer..."
NEVER AGAIN.
To be honest, it seemed like it was gonna be quite good, if it wasn't for the fact that we had two roleplayers who were... i mean, one of them was a baby roleplayer (a.k.a. me), and had never roleplayed before, and we were like "roleplaying, that involves Playing a Role"...
That's 'theatrics', Von Show fans.
... and we had two that were like "so that involves killing everything and stealing their shit." i'd sort of not realised that this was a roleplay thing, so i said things like "you're gonna kill everything? but that's a dude, in a town! don't the watchmen come after you, and Sam Vimes shouts at you and puts you in prison..."
It wasn't even that so much - it hadn't occurred to him that there would be consequences for killing people. I've talked about this on the show before, it's the idea of deciding what sort of game you're running and being fairly sort of clear about what sort of game it's going to be, so... you've got the usual sort of values clash between groups to deal with, but we're drifting away from the player/GM divide a bit...
Well, there has to be a discussion at the beginning, y'know? Anyone can say 'let's do a roleplay!", like "let's put on a show", and that's just a thing. It can be anyone, and they just phone up all their mates or put a post on a forum or a little notice in the local shop, "ROLEPLAYERS WANTED". They don't necessarily have to be the GM or the roleplayer, they just go for it, but when you actually come into the first session and it's, like, "what does everyone want to do". It doesn't have to be the GM who says that...
Do you think it works with the alternative? The GM saying "this is the game that I want to run, I HAVE SPOKEN", and that's sort of pretty much their way or the high way? Sometimes one does have this mad burning yen to run X...
You can do that, and you as the player have to say either "i think that sucks, and i'm gonna take the high way, ciao!", or you can go "no no, that works for me, that's exactly what i want to do" or, "that's close as dammit, we'll do it."
But you think that sort of discussion, deciding who wants what, in a game -
- yeah, it's important. i mean, even if you as a player sit there and go "i don't wanna do anything in particular, i just wanna roleplay", you at least need the GM to say "it's gonna be like this", so you can go "right, i'll put on my theatrical hat", or "i'll put on my dragon-killing hat".
What about GMs who are all like "I don't want to run anything in particular..."
Well that's also a cool thing, 'cause sometimes it's just like "i'm naturally a GM, i never play" -
Don't look at me in that tone of voice, it smells a funny colour! I've played. A few times.
Maybe, but you're a natural GM, and so you're just "i want to be the GM", but you don't always mind what you're GMing for. It could just be a bunch of players going "we really wanna do THIS, we need a GM," and they phone you up and be like "GM, oh no we need you", or they put a big light in the sky -
THE VON SIGNAL.
Yeah, and you could come and be "right player scum, what do you want?" and the player scum would be like "we have a plaaan, we want to do this particular game", and the GM goes "a-ha! i shall make a plan -"
"Yeah, I can do that." What do you think are the specific responsibilities of the GM?
To be a bit like a teacher. i mean, not a Zen Master, well, like a nursery teacher to be honest -
What, 'cause you're all secretly about four?
Yeah. That's about it. Y'know, you get a load of people together who are usually friends or at least interested in each other, and they're gonna go "oh yeah, we haven't seen you for a week, this cool thing happened to me, eeey i brought this sandwich, oh i brought you some crisps!", and they're gonna go on with each other for twenty minutes...
This may have happened in an Iron Kingdoms game that we tried to be in once, where... we rolled up characters!
That wasn't twenty minutes, that was six or seven weeks. i think Goth Dave, our GM - i don't know, 'cause i've never played with him before -
- or since -
- or since, as a GM, so i don't know if he can be harsh, but i don't think he wanted to be, and so he was just all "OH NO we will never do the roleplaying", and we just chatted. It was cool, 'cause that's what we wanted to do really.
But there's a certain level of GM responsibility to say "yes, well, we're all friends but we've come together to partake of this pastime and yes, it's a social pastime, but we didn't come round here to sit eating god-sandwiches and talking shit, we came around to play some game of some ilk, and if that game isn't being played, then..."
... we should have come round for another reason. i think at some point the GM has to be like "STOP IT. i will separate the two of you. We're not rolling our characters fast enough, can we please get on with the development."
"Please take the d4 out of your nose."
Yeah, which can sometimes be a bit sad, 'cause you're like "these are my friends, i don't want to treat them like my job - "
There is a certain amount of having to say to people "STOP HAVING FUN", or at least - I prefer "can we have a different kind of fun please, this is fun but hey, playing games is also fun!", but there's always a certain part of you that's just kind of... you feel you're harshing someone's buzz.
Yeah, but that's sort of why you're a GM. As a GM you have to be ready to harsh people's buzz a bit, and get them on topic, sort of like herdthosecatsherdthosecats, or you at least have to have a representative you can nudge and they'll go "OI! You lot! Take the dice out of your nose, roll your fuckin' characters..."
TO BE CONTINUED...
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