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
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