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Post your Gaming Aphorisms here.

Started by Monster Manuel, September 03, 2014, 09:58:18 AM

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Scott Anderson

#15
September 03, 2014, 10:44:32 PM
I don't kill you. The dice kill you.
With no fanfare, the stone giant turned to his son and said, "That\'s why you never build a castle in a swamp."

Daztur

#16
September 04, 2014, 12:16:58 AM
"Be Crom."

I.e. root for the players but don't provide any miracles when things get sticky.

AteTheHeckUp

#17
September 04, 2014, 09:23:22 AM
"The GM is a loot piñata.  Each player holds an oddly decorated baseball bat."

Have fun, kids.

languagegeek

#18
September 04, 2014, 09:30:06 AM
"I think we should split the party."

soltakss

#19
September 04, 2014, 01:38:35 PM
"If you can do it in real life, you should be able to do it in RuneQuest."

(or BRP, or Legend, or OpenQuest)

"Whatever I have planned as a GM, the players will do something else."
Simon Phipp - Caldmore Chameleon - Wallowing in my elitism  since 1982.

http://www.soltakss.com/index.html
Merrie England (Medieval RPG): http://merrieengland.soltakss.com/index.html
Alternate Earth: http://alternateearthrq.soltakss.com/index.html

tenbones

#20
September 04, 2014, 04:29:11 PM
Quote from: Ravenswing;784845"It's not my job to tell the players what to do.  It's my job to react to what the players do."

hahah I was just going to say something similar when I popped in here...

"Don't look at me. I'm the fucking GM. You tell ME what you do."

Gold Roger

#21
September 04, 2014, 09:36:37 PM
Doesn't matter how smart the players are, PC's are fucking morons.

Xavier Onassiss

#22
September 04, 2014, 11:46:39 PM
Dice fall, everyone rocks.

Doom

#23
September 05, 2014, 12:23:02 AM
No railroad survives contact with adventurers.
(taken during hurricane winds)

A nice education blog.

Daztur

#24
September 05, 2014, 10:11:32 AM
Don't give the PCs choices unless they have information to base their choices on.

Even really basic stuff like "do we turn left or right in this dungeon corridor" should have SOME information so it isn't just a random crap shoot. Maybe one corridor smells bad and the other one has a floor that looks more worn.

Haffrung

#25
September 05, 2014, 12:32:42 PM
Quote from: Daztur;784691If you choose who the PCs are "supposed" to ally with ahead of time they'll murder them every time. So don't bother.

Or to put it another way:

"Should we kill the guy who hired us now, or wait until he betrays us so we can find out what he's really up to?"
 

Monster Manuel

#26
September 05, 2014, 03:33:30 PM
These are all great, but I especially resonate with both of Daztur's.
Proud Graduate of Parallel University.

The Mosaic Oracle is on sale now. It\'s a raw, open-sourced game design Toolk/Kit based on Lurianic Kabbalah and Lambda Calculus that uses English key words to build statements. If you can tell stories, you can make it work. It fits on one page. Wait for future games if you want something basic; an implementation called Wonders and Worldlings is coming soon.

cranebump

#27
September 05, 2014, 04:45:14 PM
"Lore is where design and chance intersect (and is, by extension, the reason we play the game)."
"When devils will the blackest sins put on, they do suggest at first with heavenly shows..."

Haffrung

#28
September 05, 2014, 04:49:30 PM
"Story is the unanticipated consequence of the players' actions, not the sequence of events dreamed up by an author."
 

The Butcher

#29
September 05, 2014, 05:01:27 PM Last Edit: September 05, 2014, 07:41:39 PM by The Butcher
No amount of GMing talent will engage players who don't want to engage.

If you don't show focus or enthusiasm when you run a game, don't expect it from the players. A gaming group is very much garbage in, garbage out; you only get what you put in.

Heroes are made, not born. PCs don't survive impossible odds because they're the heroes. They're the heroes because they've survived impossible odds.

You don't have to write notes on every nook and cranny but you should have a solid grasp on how your world works.

Player agency should not be curtailed by a "plot" agenda, but it can and will clash with the agendas and dictates of other, and sometimes more powerful, forces within the game world.
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