Friday, March 30, 2012

Quotes #6 - Disputes


"You will have disputes over creative input. A player might feel another player’s or referee’s addition to the Game World isn’t appropriate, or a referee might think a player’s input just doesn’t fit in. If a creative dispute comes up, everyone should work together and resolve it - with as little hard feelings as possible.

In traditional roleplaying games, the referee is given ultimate authority over settling disputes. The referee’s overly harsh “six-gun justice” of shooting down anything constructive a player has to offer turns off players, and can lead to hard feelings.

In SBRPG, the referee should stop and think outside strong personal feelings and biases, approaching a dispute like a careful judge in a court of law would. Solutions should respect the original creator’s intent, but respect the shared vision of the Gaming Group’s original idea for the Game World.

The referee has the final say when a dispute can’t be solved. This “final option” of imposing a solution on the players should never be used, but should be available should things get out of control. When the Gaming group picks a referee, the group is trusting that individual to be impartial, and use this power responsibly. Solving disputes together as a group of friends is preferable to having one person impose a forced solution on everybody."

One of the companion sections in Playing the Game, Disputes, lays out what happens when someone disagrees with someone else. One of the unique parts of SBRPG is that a player can dispute a referee's interpretation of the game world - wow, that is unique, and it still is. The rule is:

"Respect the creator's original intent."

If a player creates a team of elite crack commandos their character is a part of, the referee can't turn around and make that entire team the villains of the game, turning against the player's character. The creator's original intent was 'be a part of a cool team of good guys' - and that can't be violated.

If there is a dispute, the entire group works it out, and the referee works it out. That said, if a solution absolutely can't be worked out, it falls to the referee to be a final, fair judge. In most cases in our playtests, it never fell to that, and people generally worked together and were respectful of each others additions.

Most disputes were handled on-the-side, a player would say, 'wait, maybe this would be better' - and the group would discuss quickly, and play would resume. The area referees needed to be careful was in secret plots or other behind-the-scenes stuff that would change a player's addition substantially later on. In practice, players created things they knew the referee was going to shape and meld, it was always cool as a player to create a mysterious group of enemies the commandos were after, and then gave the referee free reign on determining who they really were. People out to rule the world? Aliens? Half-animal mutant soldiers? Criminal masterminds? Who knew, but whatever they were, people were always surprised at  how things came out.

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