Author: Baron (---.albany.edu)
Date: 06-26-2003 10:04
I think the key thing to understand about developing themes in RPGs is that such games at their best are collaborative efforts (like jazz) rather than one person's pure vision executed by a group (symphony orchestra). The GM and the players need to have the same spirit of improvisation that the best jazz combos do, or like great improv theatre troupes. This is not to say that the GM can't establish his or her tone and atmosphere and convey to the Players what he or she is looking for, both initially, and by contiunally weaving in his or her thematic elements as the game progresses. In the best cases, the GM acts like the band leader, and good Players take up whatever original theme that the GM has started, and then add their own spins on it, their own unique variations, expanding the GM's themes in their own vocabulary, in the vocabulary of their character, but consistent with the original vision stated by the GM. Good GMs will then come back to whatever the Players have produced and make their own reactions to these Player responses, and so on and so on, back and forth, like a tennis game, or like the back and forht of a good jazz combo. Of course, there can be a problem when a GM doesn't really want his or her Players to contribute (a la jazz), but instead has a strict vision of the game theme, and merely wants the Players to act as instruments to perform his or her pre-determined theme or story (a la symphony orchestra). In cases like these, the GM would perhaps be happier writing a novel or a play, and then have actors carry out his or her story. It must be remembered that role-playing, at it's essence, is improvisational theatre with game rules, ie, it is both a game and improvised play or pretend. It is the GM's responsibility to create the boundaries and atmosphere of the play, as well as perhaps the rules and the props, but it is really up to the Players to bring it alive by their free interaction with those initial elements, and with the GM, all as creative partners. I think the best GMs are prepared to take on anything, and to improvise right back when his or her Players sail off the map into uncharted waters. This is part of the immense fun of good role-playing: it is a great creative back-and-forth where wonderful, unexpected turns can arise, and fantastic elaborations on original themes are generated as the game unfolds. Good Players are those who can be true to both the environment that the GM has created AND their own particular character as well, in a way that they both work together (and with other Players) to hopefully create a whole which is even greater than the sum of it's parts. That sort of collaboration is, I think, one of the chief joys of role-playing.
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