Quote from: Bren on November 18, 2020, 02:14:21 PMThat makes sense. Your calling the GM the "narrator" confused me. I think referee is a better word than narrator for what you described. Back in the 1970s and 1980s GM and Referee were used interchangeably among the folks I gamed with. I don't see that much anymore though.

"Narrator" in this case refers more to the old school radio narrator who must lay out visual scenes to the audience via narration...

Ex. "Superman entered the vast cavern and finds the hulking steel gears and belching steam engines of the Earthquake Machine have already groaned to life"... followed by Superman's voice actor (the PC) then describing his actions as he takes them and the narrator again taking over to describe final results.

So "Narrator" as the describer of scenes not as an actual storyteller (indeed, many an author/storyteller makes a distinction between themselves and the character narrating the story).

I think Amber Diceless is closer to classical Free Kriegsspiel than any other commercial RPG. Old-school is more like the earlier refereed but still rule-based wargames.

Also, one of the conceits of Amber Diceless is that PCs will often be working against each other - so the GM is more of a referee in a way, compared to D&D where the PCs are all on the same team.

It not complicated, you have a referee, you have some notes about what your character is capable of. You describe what you want to do based on the circumstances. The referee then tells you what happens or what to roll if the result is uncertain. Rinse and repeat.

Either the referee knows the setting cold and is capable of consistent rulings in which case it likely the campaign will be fun and last a good long while.

Or the referee doesn't, in which case the campaign will fall apart and the group will try something else.

What make doing this a tabletop roleplaying campaign is a focus on each players playing a individual character and doing everything from the point of view of that character.

It not novice friendly and has a steep learning curve. It demands that the referee be an effective communicator, coach, consistent, and above all fair.

The advantage is the focus on the setting of the campaign, and worrying about what you can do as if you are there rather how to manipulate a set of mechanics.

Quote from: Chris24601 on November 18, 2020, 03:00:42 PM

Quote from: Bren on November 18, 2020, 02:14:21 PMThat makes sense. Your calling the GM the "narrator" confused me. I think referee is a better word than narrator for what you described. Back in the 1970s and 1980s GM and Referee were used interchangeably among the folks I gamed with. I don't see that much anymore though.

"Narrator" in this case refers more to the old school radio narrator who must lay out visual scenes to the audience via narration...

Ex. "Superman entered the vast cavern and finds the hulking steel gears and belching steam engines of the Earthquake Machine have already groaned to life"... followed by Superman's voice actor (the PC) then describing his actions as he takes them and the narrator again taking over to describe final results.

So "Narrator" as the describer of scenes not as an actual storyteller (indeed, many an author/storyteller makes a distinction between themselves and the character narrating the story).

Description of a scene wasn't what we seemed to be discussing. But be that as it may. Given that the radio play narrator is still reading from a previously written script and is not determining any outcomes, narrator still strikes me as a confusing word to use to describe the specific role of a neutral, unbiased arbiter of outcomes in a game world.

Also narrative is already a somewhat loaded term is the RPG field. But if narrator works better to describe the role of a neutral arbiter for you, than by all means you do you.