Episode 27: The Invisible Rules of Roleplaying

[misha]

Again, this doesn't necessarily apply in all cases. A GM-less game played from a prewritten module using oracles to address unknown variables, as many solo games are played, would provide no power to define the world itself.

I don't think the definition draws a distinction between the player characters and rest of the game world when saying "define the world". When I say that "my character gives the elf a thumbs up", that's me making a claim as to the state of the world--and that's something I'm still completely capable of within a GM-less game.

The hierarchy here in question is that the player in a solo game can't dictate the state of the world outside their character or the results of their character actions except by consulting oracles--it's a hierarchy of power between player, dice, book instead of one between human players, but I think that still works.

The power-as-conscious-intent thing is interesting. Is unconsciously wielded power still power?

The GM role is further explored in the "optional or additional" rules later in the paper, but since these three Rules are supposed to be applicable to "all role-playing in general" I feel they must bear the burden of that claim in all cases, which they clearly do not.

I actually think that under this book's framework, a lot of what a GM does is not roleplaying. Hell, a lot of what players do in a roleplaying game is not roleplaying--as I said in the episode, in almost every game there's also both collaborative storytelling (even if just in the form of picking your character's name and gimmick) and board-gaming (fussing with the mechanical backend). I think the claim is that roleplaying games are ones orienting around players roleplaying, not that they're games in which the only action taken is roleplaying.