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Detached GMing
There's this idea floating around (it's Vincent's†) that, like, there's this great way to GM where the GM comes up with awesome threats and throws them at the players but then is all impartial and disinterested when it comes to them in actual play. A lot of blah about detachment.
The interesting thing is that a lot of this comes from Vincent's experiences with D&D. Which I introduced him to. But that's not the way that I run D&D at all. When I run D&D, I love my monsters. They're awesome. I want the players to see just how awesome they are. I like watching monsters (like my goblin archer/witch on a broomstick) tear the shit of the players. I also love watching players tear the shit out of my monsters, particularly when they do it in a non-stupid way. I have zero detachment from it whatsoever. A lot more "Fuck yeah, this dungeon is going to kick your ass."
I just don't want to kick ass so much that I cheat*. That'd be missing the point. The act of cheating is basically an admission that my creation is lame.
Like, if we're playing softball call-your-own-strikes I'm not just going to call four balls every time because that will get me on base. That's cheating and its lame, and it's basically an admission that not only do my softball skills suck, I'm such a dick that I'm unwilling even to try.
I think that the whole idea of detachment is wrong-headed. The idea that a creative person (a GM) could seriously be emotionally detached from her creation (a dungeon) at the moment of its first impact with an audience (the players) is totally absurd.
* In almost all games which are not wholly mechanical (i.e. sports but not board games), there are unspoken rules about sportsmanship which transcend the rules-as-written. Hence, it is cheating to call strikes-as-balls even though I, as a player, have the authority to do so. Good RPG play also has these rules.
† Edited correction: I think I confused Vincent and John Harper. Sorry.
The interesting thing is that a lot of this comes from Vincent's experiences with D&D. Which I introduced him to. But that's not the way that I run D&D at all. When I run D&D, I love my monsters. They're awesome. I want the players to see just how awesome they are. I like watching monsters (like my goblin archer/witch on a broomstick) tear the shit of the players. I also love watching players tear the shit out of my monsters, particularly when they do it in a non-stupid way. I have zero detachment from it whatsoever. A lot more "Fuck yeah, this dungeon is going to kick your ass."
I just don't want to kick ass so much that I cheat*. That'd be missing the point. The act of cheating is basically an admission that my creation is lame.
Like, if we're playing softball call-your-own-strikes I'm not just going to call four balls every time because that will get me on base. That's cheating and its lame, and it's basically an admission that not only do my softball skills suck, I'm such a dick that I'm unwilling even to try.
I think that the whole idea of detachment is wrong-headed. The idea that a creative person (a GM) could seriously be emotionally detached from her creation (a dungeon) at the moment of its first impact with an audience (the players) is totally absurd.
* In almost all games which are not wholly mechanical (i.e. sports but not board games), there are unspoken rules about sportsmanship which transcend the rules-as-written. Hence, it is cheating to call strikes-as-balls even though I, as a player, have the authority to do so. Good RPG play also has these rules.
† Edited correction: I think I confused Vincent and John Harper. Sorry.
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When I DMed Dogs or GM Storming the Wizard's Tower, my enthusiasm for my monsters is intense. My overwhelming drive is to give my monsters their own unique, full, glorious, and ideally terrifying expression. I don't need for them to win in order to give them that, I just need them to kick ass. I'm not attached to them winning, and that's absolutely all the detachment I have.
I think that "don't cheat" is a bad way to communicate it! "The rulebook says it's my call whether your guy has the high ground. I called it 'no.' That's not cheating, the rulebook SAYS it's my call."
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