Abracadabra
Me, Introduction to Abracadabra.
I typed those words in March 2008, and I mean it now as much as I meant it then. But at points, I have to stand back and ask, "what exactly do I mean?" Who cares if magicians can cast lightning bolts, but military formations still reflect the era where people moved in straight lines. Who cares if starvation and disease are commonplace, but every first level cleric has purify food and water at his or her disposal?
In one sense, no one may care. If people are having fun in the game, then that's cool. That's rule zero in any game. Or rule one. I forget the numbering scheme when I switched from VB to C#. But, here are some counterpoints:
1. Suspend disbelief. For me, part of the fun is immersing myself in the game. And I can immerse myself easier when everything seems to mesh, when I'm not running into GM fiat saying, "well, that's just the way it is." The random dungeon of owlbears next to green dragons, where there's no ecology or food pyramid just doesn't do it for me. I like for things to make sense.
2. Explore possibilities. Everyone likes a challenge and something new, right? As a GM, if I put thought into the game world, ideas come out. "What if someone took a 'Speak With Animals' spell and cast it world-wide." "Would a telepath be sick of people, all their mindless thoughts?" And these ideas turn into campaign hooks.
3. Make things relate. I like patterns. If I can inject how magic has affected society into the game, well, that's a good thing. And it lets me build some structure into the game world, and challenges the players. "Yes, the players can cast detect good and evil on the murder suspects, but the guilty party would have thought of that already, and taken countermeasures."
4. Make things challenging. This relates to the previous point. The "how to be a good DM" uses the improvisation rules of "Yes, and." Don't say, ''you can't do this," say, "you do this, and then that happens." And having what "that" is, having thought of it beforehand, well, it's a good thing.
Having said all that, I think I've done all the damage I can do here, and it's good to end on a high note. I have a few side projects I'm working on, and maybe I'll start another column. I've covered fighters and magic-users, so maybe next series will be about thieves. And there's another side project dealing with The 36 Plots that is dying to be another column. As for this, I've covered everything I want to cover.
I hope this has been good for you as it has for me. Because it has been good for me. Between this column and my previous one, I've learned a lot about gaming. I care about gaming, so this is a good thing. And the mere deadline approach helps polish my writing. I care about writing, so this is also a good thing. I encourage anyone who is interested in writing a column to pitch the idea to columns@rpg.net.
Last but not least, your comments have been useful and interesting. Thanks for your support.
