thread: 2009-06-22 : Secrets: the Smelly Chamberlain
On 2009-06-25, Vincent wrote:
Okay!
Outcome 9: the GM calls them on their crap and the game busts up.
We join session 4 in progress:
Player 2: ...Anyway my guy sits at the window and tries to breath mostly outside air.
GM: WHY?
Player 2: It's just what he'd do.
GM: No come on. What's he thinking when he decides to do that?
Player 2: He's thinking "dang the Chamberlain smells."
GM: BUT THE CHAMBERLAIN DOESN'T SMELL.
Player 2: Are you telling me what my guy's thinking? Who's mind controlling him? Don't I get a Will Resist Roll?
GM: Nobody's mind controlling him. I'm just telling you, he wouldn't be thinking that, because the Chamberlain doesn't smell.
Player 2: You get to tell me what my guy's thinking now? That's the new rule?
GM: Well you sure don't get to tell me that my guy smells. I'M THE GM. You're not playing by the rules.
Player 3: We're just saying what our characters do...
GM: Oh please. You're saying the Chamberlain smells bad and you have been for 4 sessions now. He does not either.
Player 2: You say my guy doesn't think he smells, but I say he DOES smell and my guy smells him plain as day.
GM: But you guys made me the GM for a reason. You agreed when we started this game that I'd be in charge of things like whether the Chamberlain smells. Were you lying? Did you change your mind without telling me? What?
Player 2: Whatever. Quit if you don't like it.
GM: Fantastic. You got it. See you all around.
Player 3: This sucks. I just thought it would be funny.
GM: Not really, no.
They never play again. They don't even try another session. Eventually they all have happy lives and some of them are still good friends, but the GM and player 2 never quite reconcile.
More like that, Callan?
Oh and one more while I'm here:
"Outcome" 10: the players never do it in the first place
Nobody ever does anything to suggest that the Chamberlain smells. The players don't because that would be the GM's job; the GM doesn't because he doesn't think that the Chamberlain smells. Play proceeds without.
Now ... which of the possible outcomes is the one that should happen, doesn't interest me in the least. Different groups, different times, different relationships, any possible outcome might happen.
I'd love it if you could take on the question at hand, instead: in each of the given outcomes (now including 2 new ones just for you), IS IT true that the Chamberlain smells, WHEN is it true that the Chamberlain smells, and WHAT MAKES it true that the Chamberlain smells?
