Well, gentlefolk, bear with me. I'm seeing a lot of play trends and attitudes I'm not happy with so, now I'm going to be the villain and make EVERYONE mad at me. Let me apologize in advance for pointing fingers publicly but I feel it is in the best interest of the game if these concerns are stated flatly and removed from the current realms of insinuation. I arrogantly feel that I'm the best person to say it because of my unique position in the game. Should my words offend, I pray this puck you will forgive. I do not simply complain, I also have included what actions I, myself, intend to take to resolve and assist in the handling of these situations. 1) The appearance of impropriety JV and I warned of it and the warnings went unheard. It is becoming increasingly evident that several players are losing faith in the objectivity of Jason's GMing. In all fairness, it's not hard to see why. When a weeks worth of posts are spent, not on the game itself, but on bragging about whose society is toughest, it is a clear sign the game is moving too slowly. When a GM is boasting of the prowess of "his" society, it is an even more dangerous sign. At that point, it doesn't matter whether anything untoward has occurred or not, the appearance of the situation has already compromises the integrity of the perceptions of GM actions. Most disturbing to me is that Jason seemed to be placing his own "player" society above the general needs of his position. I have spoken with Jason and this is not the actual case but the APPEARANCE was there and it shouldn't have been. Frankly, the allowing of a GM to play a society as a player has never been worked out before and I believe this is part of the learning curve that will comes with this new experiment. 2) Contrary to what other people want to believe, until I'm told otherwise: I am a GM, too. This comment is self-explanatory. If the players want this changed, they can say so and I will not be offended. Until such time, I reserve the right to act as a GM and to deliver lectures like this when I feel it is appropriate. 3) The role of dice and GM responsibility to maintain consistency and "realism" I do not agree with Louis' contention that dice should be removed from the game. I would like to point out that I say this even though I am a firm proponent of "diceless roleplaying systems" like Amber (phage press (tm)). Specifically, within the FUDGE system, the dice can provide ONLY an eight point swing (plus or minus 4) and are designed such that the "average" result is zero. I believe in those situations where the dice have "screwed" a player, that the dice themselves are not to blame. The GM bears a huge responsibility to interpret these random results in light of the actual realm of what could happen. This is my personal opinion but I will continue to contend that many of our "die" related problems are actually problems with the interpretation of those results. Again at the risk of offending, to use a recent example, a result of -4 on an action with an interpretation of "it don't work" is not sufficient and it's rather arbitrary to blame the dice. 4) Applied military theory This, I am certain, will be taken personally by a lot of players and I can't soften the blow, no matter how well intentioned my reasons for bringing it up. Some of us know more about military theory than others. Because of this, the interpretation of military actions will vary widely from player to player and GM to GM. 5) A personal conclusion and course of action No one is blameless. I in particular bear a lot of personal responsibility for some of the nagging problems because I've been pursuing personal projects and letting Qai slide. On the other hand, at this point, we really do not have any significant problems in the game and that is exactly why I'm playing the bad cop role now is so that we don't have large problems later. So, this is what I put forth as the first step towards avoiding the potential problems which could occur in the future: 1-In order to avoid the appearance of impropriety and favoritism, I will resolve the actions of any player who specifically requests it. That is, I will perform the die rolls and give my interpretations of the results. In these cases, Jason is then free to mitigate these results as he sees fit so that a mutually agreeable interpretation of the results can be reached. Let me stress, this is not about changing the actual die results but about reaching the best, clearest, most accurate portrayal of what the number really means in any given case and to provide a level of confidence in the players that they do, indeed, have safeguards in place to prevent single-GM based favoritism. 2 and 3-Hand in hand with this, I am, starting with the results of 1420, actively provide my input on those results with which I do not agree or which I feel are incomplete. If I'm supposed to be the "other" GM, then I'm going to do it. 4-First, players should defend themselves on the basis of military history. Sure, this is a magical game and realism is not our primary goal but the wealth of existing military history and theory (as well as examples in widely accepted fiction) can serve as a players first line of justification for why a specific tactic should work in a given situation. Second, I believe that complex military results will have to be "negotiated" between GMs and players in order for both sides to better understand the situation. Because of this, the more detail which is provided along with each action, the easier it will be to resolve these actions. As a final note, any other suggestions as to how we can best implement this two GM system are encouraged. As I have said, Jason is, for the most part, doing a good job and acting impartially but, right now, with his society placed in the midst of a driving plot aspect (and not by his plan, after all, when this started, he didn't expect to be GMing. My life is easier, I took over the Eerith in order to be in a position to eventually take over GMing if it became necessary, and, as you may already have noticed, the Eerith are becoming increasingly removed and "NPS-like" in their role in the world). I've already beaten this point to death but I will say it again, I'm bringing this up, not because there is a problem, but because I see the potential for a problem and conflict of interest to develop. Finally, Jason has decided that he doesn't want to place the "Canto" documents on the web-site. I realize this is problematic, especially for new players since this chronicle is the only comprehensive record and explanation of many aspects of the current world situation (after all, how many of the current players know who the Onigar King-of-the-Woods is, let alone what his connection to all of this is). The best solution I have at this point (other than to complain) is to make an open-ended offer. I will personally e-mail the Cantos which are already completed to anyone who requests them (please include the format which is best for your reading-html, text, word perfect, word for windows, etc. I work in publishing so I have access to almost everything in terms of software [although I really dislike pdf files for documents]). If I may be allowed a personal sideline, I would like to make a few clarifications and requests. In the interest of game balance and plot continuity, no one (including Mir) is going to "get" or use dragons without my prior approval. The more detailed your description of your actions and their intents, the more likely it is that you will get your way, or at least something close to it. I reserve the right to add modifiers to player actions which I feel are appropriate. If you do not have a spell-checker for your documents and/or your e-mail browser, please let me know and I will try to get you one. If you have it, use it. I know it's a small thing but I'm tired of trying to translate the fragmented, mis-spelled sentences of some actions. (I know it's a petty thing but if you don't care enough about your contributions to the game to take a few minutes to re-read them and fix the typos, it's hardly fair to expect the rest of us to care either and, yes, I know I'm a hypocrite on this point.) OK, there you have it. Your second GM is now finished with his convention schedule for the summer and is prepared to do his job with a vengeance. If you don't want this, feel free to fire me. Otherwise, I'm going to plow ahead blindly. M. Keaton ---------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe, send mail to celandra-off@phoenyx.net.
