Vincent Baker, how closely do you see the GM advice in AW tied to the background and style of the game?

Vincent Baker, how closely do you see the GM advice in AW tied to the background and style of the game?

Vincent Baker, how closely do you see the GM advice in AW tied to the background and style of the game? I’ve talked to a couple people about how to run a good game, and I keep falling back to “Buy AW and read that”. Do you think some of your execution style could be extracted into its own book? The advice in DitV is different, but is that because the games are different, or because you are evolving as a designer?

11 thoughts on “Vincent Baker, how closely do you see the GM advice in AW tied to the background and style of the game?”

  2. Bill Keller : I have a strong feeling that AW principles, with very few changes, could make many older games much better.

    I’ve seen many D&D and World Of Darkness games going so wrong just because players didn’t trust each other, expecting to be caught “pants down” because of some rule loophole, playing paranoid-ly (is that a word?) because of some “you say it, you did it” rule…

    …as opposed as the examples in AW, where it shows you should play what you really want to do, have time to ask questions and re-do action you “did” because of a misunderstanding, etc.

    Much more friendly, isn’t it?

  4. I think that most of the principals can be applied to any game. I was just wondering if Vincent had given any thought to writing a book about running games that doesn’t suck, as opposed to embedding that wisdom within a game structure directly. People look at me a little funny when I tell them to read Apocalypse World to figure out how to run a better Pathfinder game (although it could help demonstrate that Pathfinder is the first problem).

    I’ll confess that looking back at my older campaigns, I wasn’t always a fan of the player. Everything was scripted, and I railroaded like a train conductor. I would let all kinds of crazy combinations of players, without providing any outlet for inter-character interaction. I’m a little surprised people came back for more. Everything feels much more open and friendly now.

  6. Mattia Bulgarelli, I haven’t read that one. I have the books by Tobia Panshin and Brian Jamison, and all of the Gnome Stew books. 

    Just for clarification, I don’t feel like I need help (although one can always improve); I’m trying to figure out how to most succinctly express the great ideas in AW to someone that isn’t really motivated to learn a new game so they can run a different one better. I think that’s just being lazy, but that’s the kind of push back I’m getting.

  7. Ok, I got it. ^_^

    I think there’s a problem about the “One True Way” myth (that was pushed around since when Gary Gygax took control of D&D) about one should role-play “in the correct way”.

    I think you cannot add any significant advice and expect it to change the way people play unless you’re somehow able to remove the lingering idea that there is “a person in charge of making everything work” BEFORE adding new ideas (such as “be a fan” or “be friendly, no one is cheating”).

    There is a gaming culture that still believes (I’m using the term in a quasi-religious meaning, here!) that a GM who is “God at the table” is a good thing.

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