Figure out the Big Questions for yourselves

From: Mike Dawson <mdawson_at_differentcomputers.com>
Date: Thu, 12 Oct 2000 11:01:23 -0400


on 10/6/00 7:15 PM, Alex Furgeson wrote:

 Quoting me 

>> As a GM, each of us has the priviledge and position to decide how each of
>> our Gloranthas ACTUALLY, REALLY works.
>> 
>> And we should.

>
> Why? If you're saying, if you want one, define it yourself, fine.
> But as an imperative, the above is rather silly. I have to decide
> the ultimate truths of the cosmos before I run "Return to Apple Lane"?
> Do Me a Favour.

In a game filled with magic, where the gods are constrained by an oath they'd rather not have taken, then the possibility for "Return to Apple Lane" to escalate into "Quest to the Heart of Storm" is there. As I said earlier in the post you quote, the thing I love most about games is when I or my players put widely disparate pieces of info together into a new understanding of why things are the way they are.

If GMs don't bother to figure out the Big Questions for themselves, then those GMs have no Big Answers for heroes to discover. Those games will be the poorer for it.

Do you need to decide the ultimate truths of the cosmos before starting your game. No. But to improve your game, work on those truths, and be sure you stay at least a step ahead of your players in the discovery of them.

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