I recently read an article by Andy Click at The Illuminerdy that really struck a chord with me. The article was called, Behind the Screen: In GM We Trust. His article was actually inspired by a musing from another website called The Wenglish Warlock. The overall theme of both articles were simple: ����Want to make your DM’s day? Drink the unidentified potion.����
The core of having a great roleplaying game really does come down to trust. You have to trust your gamemaster and the other players that you are going to work together for a common goal. You’re there to play a game, tell a story, and have fun. That is what the essence of tabletop roleplaying is all about. If you can’t trust the other people at the table to work on that with you, then what are you playing at that table for?
I realized that all of the times I’ve had fun roleplaying, I truly trusted the gamemaster and what he would do with the story and my character. I knew he wasn’t there to screw me over or act out his god-complex with his NPCs versus my character. I knew that short of purposefully attempting to kill my character, crazy actions or even bad dice rolls would somehow turn out to be something epic! I didn’t always ‘win’ but I never truly ‘lost’.
I further realized that all of the times I’ve had bad experiences with roleplaying, I didn’t trust the gamemaster with what he was doing. I was there to play ‘his’ story and not ‘our’ story. My character was operating in his world and if I didn’t play it smart and safe I would die a horrible death for making a bad decision. That was the price for making a weak, mechanically inefficient character and choosing the wrong action at the wrong time.
The idea of drinking an unidentified potion boils down to trust with your gamemaster. Do you trust that if you drink that unidentified potion that something epic will happen? Or do you feel that if you drink that unidentified potion, your character will suffer some horrible fate as punishment for making a bad decision? I’m not saying you should act crazy and suicidal, but you should make leaps of faith with your character and trust that the gamemaster will take what you give him and spin it into something epic.
Do you trust your gamemaster enough to:
– Dive into that unknown portal…
– Listen to the mysterious voice in your head telling you to do something…
– Trust the completely untrustworthy NPC that just gave you advice…
– Not have someone stand watch at night since your group is so tired…
– Flip the switch with an unknown purpose…
– Separate the party…
– Deal with a dragon…
If the answer is, ����Hell yes,���� then you’re probably playing with the right gamemaster. If the answer is, ����I don’t know, that might cause (insert bad thing here) to happen,���� then maybe you need to ask yourself if that is the right game for you. If it is, then who am I to tell you who you should be playing with? You keep doing what you’re doing if you’re having fun.
In the mean time, I’ll keep trusting my gamemaster will make something epic happen with my decisions. I’ll keep getting on that leaky boat in the middle of a storm to cross the lake before nightfall. I’ll keep entering my character and his friends in tournaments ‘to the death’. I’ll keep diving underwater and swimming into that unknown tunnel, praying that my breathing will hold out. I’ll keep diving off cliffs at flying dragons to get the last hit in. I’ll keep drinking the unidentified potion…
Great article Sam. I think this is one of those areas that are absolutely essential for a great RPG experience. I hope this article gets a lot of folks out there talking and helps improve games.
John Lewis recently posted…Managing the Spotlight
This really merged well with your recent article, “Let the Fun Happen”. We must have been subconsciously thinking about somewhat of the same thing at the same time… �����
Samuel Van Der Wall recently posted…Managing the Spotlight