In a message dated 9/1/02 3:22:24 PM, yahoo_at_... writes:
<< The game mechanics have surprisingly few ways in which the players can control the course of the game AS A GAME (since the Narrator sets up all the contests and decides the abilities and ratings of the opponents). >>
Of course, isn't that the point of the narrative structure?
"Narrativist" games solve the non-existent problem of the game master not having enough control of the game.
Or as I put it recently in a verbal discussion: "simulationist games' are based on the idea of the gamemaster entertaining the players. This is bad.
Narrativist games are better. In them, the game master (henceforth to be called THE NARRATOR) is to be entertained by the players."
Here's how the "games" work -- first, THE NARRATOR tells the players to write down some words and numbers on a sheet. Don't worry about what they are -- they will have nothing to do with the game. Nothing on them can be compared with anything, even with the same words and numbers on another player's sheet, let alone those on THE NARRATOR's sheet, except by the will of THE NARRATOR. THE NARRATOR will then tell a story. At times, he will ask the players to roll dice. Don't worry about what you roll, good or bad, because it means nothing, except at the will of THE NARRATOR.
The point of a narrativist game is for the players to provide an admiring audience for THE NARRATOR. He has already decided everything of importance that is going to happen in the game.
In a narrativist game, only one skill matters, and it isn't on your sheet. It is "Wheedle NARRATOR."
When THE NARRATOR (rarely) asks the players to do something, it is the player's job to figure out what THE NARRATOR wants him to do. Often this involves convincing the narrator that some odd thing on the player's sheet (smelly feet 18) has something to do with the story that THE NARRATOR wants to tell.
Above all, remember that you must not irritate THE NARRATOR, but must provide an admiring audience, and, when called upon, figure out what THE NARRATOR wants you to do, despite the absence of many obvious clues. (DON"T keep on reading off different things and asking "does this work? does this work?")
Not surprisingly, "narrativist games" are popular with potential narrators, but considerably less so with potential players.
Jim Chapin
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