I have seen several advocates against the dramaturgist style of refereeing who seem to imply that dice are an, if not the, instrument enabling player free will.
Well, they aren't.
Dice are rolled to determine the outcome of a chancy undertaking. Ok. Now, if as a referee I want that undertaking to succeed, I may have lots of dice rolls, and gladly accept every positive result as furthering my story. If I want the undertaking to fail, I may have lots of dice rolls, and demand that there are no failures. In either case, the dice rolling doesn't really determine the outcome of the undertaking, unless statistically improbable things are rolled up - I may be forced to accept something like a tunnel effect, i.e. a change to the determined course inspite of probability. So what - the chance that it were the dice which forced me is a lot lower than the chance that player ideas forced me.
Unless you play rules-lawyeresque, and adhere to strict interpretation of minuscule rules, but in that case it's unlikely that your game will be set in as rich a background as Glorantha - there's no time left for background in such a game. (Although I've always wanted to referee a paper and pencil game of Nethack...)
If as a referee I want to allow player free will, all I need to do is listen to what they say and do, decide that this would go well with the plot I have, or even improve it, and go for it. Or it may completely overturn my plot, which may result in even more enjoyable events. I don't see any dice involved in this. If the player decide to save the virgin from the dragon by doing something about her status, so be it... If I'm in the right mood, the dragon may delay its arrival for long enough to make this a memorable action.
If a group full of Orlanthi with a single Yelmalio worshipper reacts strangely in a mythically charged atmosphere and the Yelmalian does things which happen to reflect some myth of Yelmalio rather than the mainstream Orlanthi myth, guess whose mythic reality will prevail in the next stage. Even when the plot started out as a straight Orlanth cult mission...
I've been known to put aside a (rare) prepared scenario as consequence of a careless remark of a PC and even more careless follow-ups, such as when a trader, his shaman friend and their mercenary sidekick went into town to organize some tools for digging up the entrance. Being asked what the tools were for, they jested that they had found gold in the mountains to the east. Some entrepeneurs of semi-legal activities overheard this and decided to have the PCs lead them there, several weeks worth of march from the grave just four hours of ride outside the town (and holding a tome with crucial information for the main theme of the campaign).
Ok, this wasn't quite what the PCs wanted to happen, but it was what the PCs incited to happen. Does Free Will always work in the way intended?
Powered by hypermail