The Evolution of a Gamer

I had a bit of an epiphany on my drive home from the weekly Mutants & Masterminds game I run at Rogue Robot (a local comic book/game store). The session went pretty well and the players had fun, which is always a plus for me. However, that isn't the epiphany that I had. It actually revolved around a specific situation during the game. On the drive home I realized that my views on things as a GM have shifted. I still can't put my finger on exactly when the change occurred, but they did. First though, the scene that got my brain going on the topic:


The players had (at long last) realized they should probably team attack the big bad as they were doing next to nothing to him one on one. I said "So, just tell me how you guys want to cooperate to attack the Buried One and you can make your rolls."

That comment was all but met with groans. One player said that that was the reason she hadn't suggested it already, she didn't have an idea of how to do it. Then another player said "Too bad you used all your plastique already, you could wad it in a ball, throw it to Alloy and I could throw him at the Buried One."

The skills they would be using would be the plastique-owner's (Nal) ranged blast skill, the one throwing Alloy (Rogue Robot)'s ranged laserfinger skill, and Alloy's unarmed attack skill. Technically, the description of what they wanted to do had nothing to do with the actual skills rolled (except Alloy's, tangentially). And Nal was out of plastique. However, I said to just roll with it. The game rules don't specify ANY description has to be given, and I thought it sounded cooler than "we all shoot/punch him at once."

They performed their team attack and the adventure continued on its course to the end. Afterwards I was driving home and I found myself realizing that not even a year ago, my answer might have been very different. 

I was weaned on OD&D, AD&D and the like. As a GM starting out, I quickly discovered that I was very much a "if it isn't on your character sheet, you don't have it" game master. I wasn't a hardcore simulationist. I always preferred leaving the battlemap out of things. I like drawing a sketch of the area and using tokens or even just drawn circles to mark the locations of players/NPCs. However, when it came to equipment, abilities, powers, etc., if you didn't have it written down then you didn't have it at all.

On the drive home last night, I started trying to pinpoint when it was that my attitude started to change. A year or so ago, in a best-case scenario I would have asked the player to spend a hero point to "edit the scene" to have the plastique for the attack. I also would have required the players come up with a description involving the specific skills they were rolling. Now, I call it fluff and say "if it sounds cool, go for it."

I think that part (if not all) of this stems from some of my RPG experiences over the past year. I read (though have yet to play) Burning Wheel for the first time. I also discovered and played both Fiasco and Dread for the first time. These are all games that revolve far more around story and collaborative storytelling than mechanics. I think perhaps my recent love affair with Fate Core is what finally pushed me over the edge completely into being a more narrative GM than mechanics-driven. 

I guess I really just find it funny because it wasn't until last night that I even realized it had happened. It's just one of those examples of change being gradual and one day you wake up realizing you aren't who you were the day prior. In addition, this is just one of those things I love about role playing.  I can not be a fan of your style of play, you can not be a fan of mine and we can both be 100 percent correct in our opinions. You can play games that are completely dice driven or games (like Amber) that require no dice whatsoever.

Well, there wasn't a ton of "enlightening" material in today's post, but it was still something I felt like sharing. Because regardless of role playing being "just a silly hobby," it can change people and their perceptions.