Feb 24, 2019, 2:52 PM

@Ominous said in How do you like things GMed?:

The Quantum Ogre is one of the oldest discussions in the OSR. I lean on the "never" side of illusionism, but, if you truly can pull it off and somehow guarantee that the players are never able to discover the illusionism, have at it. I don't trust myself to not screw it up.

Yeah, similarly - if you can consistently entertain groups of 10-12 PCs just by "winging it" and never pre-ordaining anything, more power to you! I can't. I have no philosophical objection to the Quantum Ogre. If they go to the forest, they get to fight an ogre and have fun. If they go to the plains, they get to fight an ogre and have fun. (Presuming that fighting an ogre is fun in the first place). Seems like a win-win to me.

Some flexibility is still required though. To use the example from one of your articles:

Bandits to the east - we go west! ack, bandits here too!

That's railroading, and the players will pick up on it pretty quick. When the players are going to great effort to do (or avoid) something, I think that good GMs will give the players something for their efforts.

But to quote a different part of the article:

If they enter your rioting city, and decide to leave, let them get the hell out of there if they wish. . .

I mean that's fine, but at the same time... players can't go out of their way to avoid the plots handed to them and still expect to be entertained.

"The Starbucks just exploded!"
"OK we leave and call 911."
"Um. OK. Cool. Thanks for coming. Event over."