I'd say it *could* be a path to pissing off my players and, if I was a dick of a GM, it probably would be. Fortunately my players seem to agree that I'm not a dick, so we're golden.
>>If a player chooses an ability for their character,
[snippage]
>>If the player *wanted* to create a character who's disrespect for
>>authority got them into trouble, they could have chosen 'Disrespectful
>>of Authority (flaw)'.
Some players play this way, but some don't. I have one player who is very exploratory/simmy in his playstyle and who gets disgruntled if he feels that the world isn't pushing back at him but who is usually unsatisfied when he authors that push-back himself - part of what he looks for from the GM is the sense that there's an outside world with a variant agenda that can surprise him and that he can strategise about. It'd be uncool for me to impose a narrative agenda on him if that's not what he's into.
>>They they did not should be significant. The narrator gets to control all the NPCs; let
>>the players control their characters.
Yup, with the important rider that everyone (including me) is happy with the overall direction and integrity of play - part of that WSoD is that characters behave with a certain degree of consistency and psychological realism, so if one character is stacked to the gills with personality traits that enable them to be sociopathic badass in the traditional mould of RPG characters then it likely follows that they will be ill-fitted to looking after traumatised orphans in the aftermath of a Broo raid. I do not agree that my pointing this out to the player whose character is in that situation and imposing flaws derived from his 'Psychopathic Frenzy', 'Blood Lust', 'Merciless Killer' and 'Puppy Torturer' abilities necessarily makes me an evil, oppositional GM who delights in crushing his players narrative aspirations - but noone can know for sure unless they play in my game so the point is pretty much moot.
Regards
Luke
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