Playing a character, and doing it well, takes time, attention, focus.

It gets trickier when the group has a fairly potent fictional world they're agreed upon.  It can get even trickier when this fictional stuff is anchored down with fiddly mechanical stuff - but also rewarding in ways that are awesome.  Add in jumping back and forth from playing the character to playing the world for others, and it can be damn near impossible to actually see the character that you came to roleplay.

That's why there's a GM chair - to manage a lot of that load, so players can get down to business.  The GM isn't a special snowflake, not are they a stern-and-fair arbiter.  Their "power" does not need to be protected from evil and abusive players.

The GM is a load-bearing device, creating a space for the roleplay that's otherwise all too easy to lose.

Go on, tell me I'm wrong.

You're wrong.  The GM should be a stern-and-fair arbiter.

Quote from: thedungeondelver;328741You're wrong.  The GM should be a stern-and-fair arbiter.

Nonsense.

What do they have to be stern and fair about?

The GM should be sleek, sexy, and slightly intoxicated.

Quote from: Aos;328745The GM should be sleek, sexy, and slightly intoxicated.

Damn it Aos, Game Master, not Grand Mistress.

That's up to - or should be up to - the group.

-clash

Quote from: Levi Kornelsen;328743Nonsense.

What do they have to be stern and fair about?

What don't they?  It's your thesis that it is otherwise; I have 30 years of AD&D play that tells me it is so.  Convince me my DMing style is wrong.

Go.

Quote from: Levi Kornelsen;328732Playing a character, and doing it well, takes time, attention, focus.

Nope. It takes belief.

Time, attention, focus are the tools the imaginarily-crippled use to reach this state of role-playing bliss.

Quote from: Benoist;328769the imaginarily-crippled

Stay classy, Benoist.

Quote from: thedungeondelver;328768What don't they?

Anything.  

There isn't a single thing in the imaginary world that the GM needs to be "stern and fair" about while the players are roleplaying.

Or do you think that it's the job of the GM to somehow force people to roleplay, by removing all other options?

Quote from: Levi Kornelsen;328772Stay classy, Benoist.

Oh I may. It's just that implying that playing an RPG character "well" is somehow a function of the attention, study and techniques of a superior mind, as in acting, is factually wrong. If you want to methodically play characters in art pieces, then take acting classes. Don't play role-playing games.

What you really need to play an RPG character well is belief. Belief you are that other person you play, belief in the game world, belief in your own capacity as a role-player to be in control of it all.

Only the imaginarily-cripp... sorry, the creatively-impaired, empathetically-challenged, take your pick... the person not being able to believe in the act of being someone else will "need" that much time, attention and focus to play a character "well".

Quote from: Benoist;328778Oh I may. It's just that implying that playing an RPG character "well" is somehow a function of the attention, study and techniques of a superior mind, as in acting, is factually wrong. If you want to methodically play characters in art pieces, then take acting classes. Don't play role-playing games.

I'm saying that getting nagged at every ten seconds to play the bad guys makes it really hard to look at things from a character perspective.

Where did this "superior mind" and "art" shit come from, never mind the wild firing of insults in random directions?

What, is it "one true way" week on theRPGsite and nobody told me?

Quote from: Caesar Slaad;328785What, is it "one true way" week on theRPGsite and nobody told me?

*Shrug*

Quite a few people spent a bit of time stating that what players in RPGs really want is to play things from the perspective of their characters.

If that's true, then the first post in this thread should likewise be true.

Shouldn't it?

Dunno, Caesar. I dunno what the fuck they're talking about. Levi's not lost his muddled tendency in his time away from therpgsite, I see.