On Wed, 1 Feb 2006, Karen J. Cravens wrote:
> CDC>What I'm finding is that I'd like to have someone outside of my game
> CDC>to bounce ideas off of. Karen's my best collaborator, but when she's
> CDC>playing in the game, I can't "reveal all".
>
> And... why not?
Hrm. I think it'd spoil things for you. Do your really want to know
who the Blood-Red King is, and what Dronick and his chimera are really
about, and what's really going on with the alien plant invaders now
that you've destroyed the hive-queen... all before your character
knows?
And then, how much will it hurt your suspension of disbelief when you
find out how little _I_ know about the Blood-Red King, or that I
changed a fundamental aspect of the plant invaders just to make them
more "4-color" when the spotlight swings back to that plot? I change
details on the fly to make them fit the direction the story is
taking... the "Fire" plot was supposed to be tied to the background of
Magma, but when Chris switched characters, I realized it tied into his
new character's background even better.
I tend to think that even the best "firewalling" players lose
something when they have to play their characters with too much
knowledge of what's really going on. I'm not worried about you using
that information inappropriately, but that it will color your
experience in a negative way. I have to agree with James (a fellow
player from way back), as a player, I don't want to know the secrets
in advance... I want to experience them in play.
I think that's a big part of GMing for me... watching the players
unravel the mystery. I really get a kick out of it when you figure
out what's going on. If you know what's going on, you have to fake it
all and not be "too helpful" to the other players.
--
Carl D Cravens (raven@phoenyx.net) Gamers List Owner
[ Trim Your Quotes! ]
ZenCrafters: Total enlightenment, in about an hour.
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